Sign inventory, Week 7

Empire of Dreams
-Charles Simic

*The poem notes several moments of negatation or a lack of something: I’m on a street corner where I shouldn’t be, alone and coatless, I am afraid to put [the mask] on, etc.

*The first line sets the poem in the “always present,” because it is always evening every time the speaker opens his dream book.

*The speaker’s dream is riddled with war/occupied terminology: in an occupied country, hour before curfew, all the houses are dark, storefronts gutted, on a street corner where I shouldn’t be, the speaker has to wear a mask.

*The title lends to a controlled environment in the speaker’s dream with Empire.

*The poem is set in an ominous light: hour before curfew, all the houses are dark, he is going out looking for a black dog, he wears “a kind of Halloween” mask.

*There are not many concrete details in the poem other than Halloween; the reminder of the poem is more general: in an occupied country, a small provincial city, I am on a street corner where I shouldn’t be, etc.

*The Halloween mask gives concern to the speaker’s need for concealment.

*The speaker and the dog have some kind of special connection because the dog only answers to “my whistle.”

*By looking for the dog, the speaker puts himself in a sense of danger, because he is out in the city at night when he shouldn’t be; and he is cutting it close to curfew.

*The speaker has the option to conceal himself with the Halloween mask, but is afraid to do so.