17 pages • 34 minutes read
Charles SimicThe Partial Explanation
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1999A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Form and Meter
“The Partial Explanation” by Charles Simic is a narrative poem of 18 lines in four stanzas, two of which are quatrains (four lines) and two of which are cinquains or pentains (five lines). The poem is written in free verse, meaning it employs neither formal meter nor rhyming pattern. The language of the poem is simple and accessible to a broad reading audience. Simic uses both complete grammatical phrases and fragments. Tonally, the poem feels less like a conversation and more like the speaker is talking to themself. The combination of complete phrases and fragments, plus the largely informal word choices, juxtaposes the choice to capitalize each new line—a choice that lends a certain formality to the structure and appearance of the poem.
At the end of the third stanza, the phrase “[u]pon entering” (Line 13) introduces a higher level of diction that serves to create some distance between the speaker and their emotions. The line is a turn, or even a precipice, indicating the speaker’s decision to enter into their gloomy situation. The poem then pivots into the emotional swan-dive and shorter lines of “a longing / Incredible longing / To eavesdrop” (Lines 14-16). As for “the conversation / of cooks” (Lines 17-18), the hard “c” sounds provide a very concrete quality, distinguishing the chitchat of the kitchen workers as a solid point of reality in an otherwise surreal environment.
Repetition
The first line of the first stanza begins with the phrase “Seems like” (Line 1), followed by “Since” (Line 2) at the beginning of the second line. The second stanza repeats the pattern. Repetition often has the effect of creating a kind of rocking rhythm, a textual and sonic ebb and flow that can be either meditative or jarring, according to intention of the poet. In “The Partial Explanation,” the repetition feels uneasy. Perception and memory are not working together to make sense of time. The speaker is not grounded in time. The markers by which they might understand time are unfixed—a disappeared “waiter” (Line 2), and the sound of a “door” (Line 6) swinging shut. The repetition of “Seems” (Lines 1 and 5) and “Since” (Lines 2 and 6) as capitalized line openers instill a sense that the speaker is lost in time.
Another area of repetition is in the use of repeated vowel sounds. The “o” sounds in “order” (Line 2) and “door” (Line 6), plus “snow” (Line 4) and “grown” (line 5), are extended vowel sounds that, in and of themselves, slow time. These were all intentional choices by Simic to create the tone and set the mood of this straightforward, yet complex poem.
Syntax
The order in which words appear in “The Partial Explanation” vary the tone of the poem throughout the piece. Simic’s chosen syntax works to create distance between the speaker and their emotions. This is particularly notable in stanza three, wherein the syntax serves to animate the “glass of ice-water” (Line 10), so that it may keep the speaker “company” (Line 11). It’s funny, in an absurdist way, that a simple “glass of ice-water” (Line 1) may have the agency and inclination to provide companionship. The phrasing offers a bit of humor to buffer the speaker’s loneliness.
The fourth stanza begins with an expansion of what else may be keeping the speaker “company” (Line 11), which is the speakers own “longing” (Line 14). The reader knows that it is the speaker’s own “longing” (Line 14), and yet the phrase reads “a longing” (Line 14), without the possessive pronoun “my,” suggesting it could belong to anyone despite the fact that no one else is there. As “a longing” (Line 14), it is an emotional entity unto itself, possibly capable of pulling up a chair at the “table” (Line 12). It exists in that it “keeps” (Line 11) the speaker “company” (Line 11). It is another notable entity in the room.
When the speaker says they sit “[a]t this table I chose myself / Upon entering” (Lines 12-13), they are admitting something, but at the same time wrapping the admission up in a blanket of formal diction. The site of the speaker’s gloom is “this table” (Line 12), which they “chose” (Line 12) of their own volition. It is done; it is fate. The phrase, “[u]pon entering” (Line 13), in comparison to the informal language used in the first two stanzas, makes it sound as though it wasn’t even the speaker who entered, but some other person altogether. Maybe “[u]pon entering” (Line 13), there was no one there to greet the speaker; maybe the speaker ignored whoever was there. In any case, it seems that the moment of entry has led to regret. With this syntax—this wording—the speaker distances themselves from the threshold, from the very moment that brought them to this uneasy state of being.
