The Story Part Of It By Marge Saiser

Marge Saiser’s “The Story Part of It” conveys a message: the unspoken is more prevalent than the written. Instead of writing long stanzas on to try to bring up the same emotions, Saiser was selective in her word choice to allude to the impact of emotion, brought forth abstract concepts through imagery, and signaled the end of a man with an analogy. The combination of these three things reflects the theme of the poem, to have a powerful meaning it must be captured in few words. The phrase “the story, part of it ” repeated multiple times throughout the poem, it is the distinction between the events being recorded and the meaning behind them. It sets a narrative tone to the piece of literature, describes the external forces that occur, while it signals to the reader there is more meaning behind the words.The poem was never written in the perspective of the father or youngest daughter only the observer and her interpretation of past events.
“He looked up and caught sight of her, of us”, the younger sister is recognized first implying there is a difference in the relationship the father has with his youngest daughter than his oldest. Coupled with the tractor incident the father felt a closer bond with his younger daughter since both of them experienced a closeness with death. It is not only the selective use of diction to allude to the theme, there is the enclosement of complex emotions found in imagery. “He put his hand over his eyes...we came to him”, depicted a scene where a family must say their last goodbyes to each other.
It means a father who loved his children became so overwhelmed with his current situation he became speechless when his children entered the room. The comment about a simple action, such as the father covering his eyes, can be more meaningful than any arrangement of words that try to erect the same type of emotion. The imagery used replaces the words that could have been added to the poem, but it adds more depth and meaning to it. The author recalls a past memory when she wrote, “Jennie, ten years old, climbed up and took a seat at the wheel”, recalling a childhood memory implies that the author never got over the incident. The poem was made around the memory then created a connection later down the line with the dying father. Imagery was used to help connect the events of the poem and allude to how strongly the characters felt, could not be complete without the support of metaphorical
phrases. Finally, “My father’s last room” was the name given to the soon to be location of a man’s death. There was no mention to how the room was decorated or if any other patient shared the room. The lack of description gives emphasis to the things the author deems important, a father waiting for his children . The room was a place where a man could say goodbye, but still feel the love of his children. The action of walking in the room, allowed the children’s presence to fill the empty space which affected the father and caused him to cover his face. The words “maze” and “last room” were used to describe the location of the father; these words alludes to life coming to an end. Life is filled with twist and turns similar to a maze, but at the end there one exit in reference to the word “last”. The combination of selective details through diction, recall of past significant memories, and make a comparison of a dying man to a room, allowed the theme to be shown, to show love words do not need to be spoken.