Now Where

Kenyon, Jane

Primary Category: Literature / Poetry

Genre: Poem

Annotated by:
Dittrich, Lisa
  • Date of entry: Jan-22-1997

Summary

The poem is a description of the experience of severe depression. The speaker describes how she goes about her day while "it"--the depression, unnamed in the poem--is with her always, keeping her from experiencing any pleasure in life.

Commentary

This poem evokes the despair of relentless depression--no suicidal ideation, but the daily grind of this illness--which, the speaker says, "spoils my food and steals / my sleep, and mocks me, saying / 'Where is your God now?'" She also notes that "To strangers I must seem / alive," which reminds us of how hidden depression can be, and how isolating for the sufferer.

Primary Source

Otherwise: New and Selected Poems

Publisher

Graywolf

Place Published

Saint Paul, Minn.

Edition

1996