Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In Natasha Trethewey's "Mythmaker," the speaker reminisces about the nurturing and instructive role of a father who wielded myths and legends as tools for life lessons. The poem captures the dichotomy of myth-making and reality, juxtaposing the enduring myths created by the father against the inescapable realities of aging and vulnerability.

The poem begins with an evocation of a shared family lore, "We lived by the words / of gods, mythologies / you'd mold our history to." The collective "we" binds the family unit, even as the father serves as the creator of their history. From the start, the father is seen as a figure deeply entrenched in stories, illuminating life through "books and lamplight." He's not just telling tales for amusement; he is "weaving lessons into bedtime," making stories instrumental and formative in the child's life.

The stories mentioned-of Icarus and Narcissus-are cautionary tales, freighted with "warning and wisdom." Icarus's tale becomes a lesson in the importance of heeding a father's words, and Narcissus's story offers a caution against self-absorption. The tales reflect the fears and hopes that the father has for the child, a wisdom he distills through myth, allowing the speaker to "carry his doom to sleep."

The mythological narratives extend even to the father's own role as a guardian figure, likened to Beowulf, who "slays Grendel at my door." This casts the father as both teacher and protector, battling the monsters that encroach upon the speaker's sleep and anointing the speaker's head with Grendel's symbolic blood, perhaps signifying courage and resilience.

However, the poem ends on a poignant note of reversal. The child, now grown, has become the mythmaker, "reinvent[ing] you / a thousand times, making you / forever young and invincible." The stories have taken on a life of their own, offering an idealized image of the father. Yet, this contrasts starkly with the reality indicated in the final lines-"Not like now. Not like now"-hinting at the father's aging, his possible decline, or perhaps even his death.

"Mythmaker" raises questions about the power and limitations of stories in shaping our perceptions of others and ourselves. Stories can teach us, protect us, and even immortalize us, but they can also, as the poem's conclusion suggests, create chasms between the myths we live by and the stark realities we must inevitably face. The tragedy lies in the realization that while myths may endure, the human beings behind them are fallible and mortal. The juxtaposition of the mythic and the real makes the poem a complex tapestry of longing, learning, and the inevitable passage of time.

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