Essay, Research Paper: The Victory By Anne Stevenson

When I first looked at this piece, it reminded me
of Bill Watterson's poems from the front of Calvin
& Hobbes anthologies, like "The Yukon Song" from
page three of Yukon Ho! ("We'll never have to go
to school,/Forced into submission,/By monstrous,
crabby teachers who'll/Make us learn addition.").
This was primarily because the outward subject of
the poem is immediately apparent: a woman
complaining about her baby son. It is not hidden
behind a shroud of metaphors and images, requiring
particularly deep thought for understanding. The
basic idea is clear. The association was also due
to the almost trite A-B-A-B rhyme scheme, which
makes it seem a bit comical at first glance.
This carefree, sing-song format may have been used
deliberately by the poet to show that, despite the
negative things she is saying, she loves her son
unconditionally. She can't help it. "Why do I have
to love you?" she muses in line 15. This poem
seems more like the things an adoring mother might
say to her infant son after he awakens her in the
night with his "bladed cries" than the fervent
rantings of a mental patient whose son destroyed
her life.
The first stanza is fairly straightforward. It
depicts clearly the pride a mother feels after she
has given birth in spite of the physical pain it
caused her. This mother thought of her son as a
victory. She had won; she had fulfilled her
purpose in life. Nevertheless, she immediately
noticed the apparent unappreciativeness ("…you cut
me like a knife") which plagues many parents
through their children's first twenty years, and
beyond. Clearly lines three and four, "…I brought
you out of my body/into your life," refer to the
actual birth of her son.
The second stanza physically describes the
newborn. It is extremely difficult to give birth
(or so I've heard); to battle against this "tiny
antagonist" who doesn't seem to want to go where
he is being pushed. And when he finally comes out
he is little more than a gory, eight-pound bruise.
"Tiny antagonist" also introduces the idea that
this is a bit of a competition between mother and
infant, an idea which is revisited in the last
line. The "cloud of glory" mentioned in line seven
is physically the placenta, but represents a sort
of organic royal robe; an air of entitlement,
almost pretentiousness, that children and
adolescents often have.
The poem gets a little more interesting as we
enter the third stanza. First, there is the word
"blind" in line nine, which has a double meaning.
The most obvious is that the newborn baby can
barely see through his "blank insect eyes," yet he
still dares to scream and demand. Far more
interesting, though, is the idea that this is a
"blind baby" as in a "blind shot" or a "blind
curve." The mother (and probably the father, too)
went into this baby-making business blindly,
without fully understanding what was involved.
This comes to mind for the mother now as she gets
up, for the nth time that month, to feed her baby
in the middle of the night.
Also interesting in stanza three is the first of
two animal analogies. Both the insect in line ten
and the snail in line 13 are animals which are
more or less at the mercy of humans. Either can be
snuffed out relatively easily. This is true of the
baby, too. Despite his thankless attitude, he is
alive only because others allow him to be. The two
small animals each individually represent other
characteristics of the son. The insect is a
mindless drone, existing only to eat and, it
seems, to annoy, while the snail is lazy,
sluggish, and snot-covered. The insect metaphor is
carried to the end of the third stanza, as the
baby is said to "barb the air" and "sting/with
bladed cries." There is also a "Hungry snarl" in
line 14. A snarl, while not animal by definition,
is often associated with dogs and other beasts, so
it seems prudent to tie it in.
This poem, like many others, pulls out of images
in the last two-and-a-half lines to dabble in
self-analysis. Line 15 stands out from the rest of
the poem because it breaks the otherwise rigid
rhyme scheme. Again, she wants to emphasize that
in spite of all she has said, she truly does love
her son. However, she is also expressing genuine
wonder as to why she is forced to love this
creature which gives her nothing, not even thanks,
in return.
Finally, in the last line, we return to the idea
of a competition when the mother is bewildered to
discover that her "small son" was really the
victor in the end. It amazes her that such a tiny,
helpless thing got the best of her. Based on the
title of the poem, though, I think they both won.
A title is often nothing more than a one-line
summary of a poem, which to me means that her
little winner is, cheesy as it may sound, himself
a victory for her.
Many of the ideas explored in "The Victory" work
just as well for a mother lamenting her son in his
teenage years. She is helping him, after an
all-too-short childhood, into his life as an
adult, yet he is thankless. He cuts her like a
knife, he stings "with bladed cries." His
blindness can now be interpreted as unacknowledged
naivity; the lines "…Scary knot of desires!" and
"Why do I have to love you?" become even more
meaningful, even poignant. This is one of the
things that makes this poem great, despite its
outward simplicity. It is truly timeless and
flexible