The poem, “Joe Lawson’s Wife” by Lorna Crozier

The poem, Joe Lawsons wife by Lorna Crozier is a symbolically easy work. The poem tells the story of a man who commits suicide, and how his wife reacts to her husbands dying. There is obvious symbolisation in both the sun and take out in the poem. The sun personifies Mrs. Lawsons conscious efforts to absorb and curiosityure the news of her husbands suicide. She goes from only barely understanding what is going on, and being in tell apart shock to the realization that her husband is dead fully drop down in. The milk is representative of normalcy in Mrs.Lawsons life, and it is the everyday chore of milking the cows that she clings to when her husband dies. The sun plays a significant role in symbolically showing the reader how the news of her husbands death is gripping Mrs. Lawson. The sun builds up tension as it rises, symbolically representing her husbands death sinking in as she struggles to harmonize this morbid news. The first mention of the sun occurs in the middle of th e play. The doctor endeavors to get Mrs. Lawson to go into the can and away from the gruesome scene of her husband, but she refuses to leave his side.Crozier writes, The sun was rising, its splinters from the cracks in the walls dropping all around her. In these lines, the sun is representative of the news of her husbands death and the divine revelation that she is alone. The splinters from the sun, or small beams of light coming through the cracks of the barn show that the news is middling starting to sink in, and Mrs. Lawson is only slightly aware of what is going on. The sun is referenced again toward the end of the poem, with Crozier telling the reader, The suns bright nails pounding through. The use of the sun, again, to describe how the death of Mr.Lawson is affecting his wife is symbolic. Whereas when she first saw her husbands body, she was in shock and barely comprehending what had happened, at this point she is fully aware of her husbands death, and the realization of t his hits her much harder, like nails pounding into her. The references to milk within the poem are also very symbolically significant. The ritual of milking the cows appears to be a common, everyday chore for Mrs. Lawson. For this reason, upon the news of her husbands death, Mrs. Lawson begins milking the cows, or so in a sense of prehension for something normal in her life.The milk is symbolic of the normalcy that Mrs. Lawson had in her life prior to her husbands suicide. After the men have taken Mr. Lawsons body from the barn, She pulled the wooden stool to the stall and milked the cow. It is almost as if by milking the cows, Mrs. Lawson is attempting to go back to a time when her husband was still alive. Her complete focus, however, is on his death, as she doesnt even bother to put a pail under the cow to father the milk. Mrs. Lawson milks the cows just like she probably did every other day of her life in an attempt to return any differentiate of normalcy to her now chaotic l ife.Lorna Croziers poem, Joe Lawsons Wife exhibits two symbolically important elements. The first element is the sun, which represents the news of her husbands suicide sinking into Mrs. Lawsons conscious mind. At first, only a few streaks of light shine though, but by the end of the poem the light is hitting her like a nail being pounded into her. The second important symbol in this poem is the milk. The milk is representative of normalcy in Mrs. Lawsons life. Milking the cows is on the face of it part of her everyday routine, and she clings to this familiar chore in an attempt to return her life to any sort of normal state.