The mark of good literature is unpredictability. A literary piece is good if the reader does not easily guess what the topic is from the start. A good piece of literature should unfold, bit by bit, through the entire length of the material. Mary Oliver’s poem “Singapore,” from her poetry collection entitled ‘House of Light’ is one such material. The story unfolds and the reader is caught in the moment till the very last line.
Oliver relates something that is an eyesore. Inside one compartment that was open at the Singapore airport women’s restroom, she saw a disgusting sight. A woman is washing ‘something’ in the toilet bowl. In the first two stanzas of the poem, Oliver has already given us the location and the emotional feel of the piece. “A darkness was ripped from my eyes,” means that the sight opened her eyes, thus startling her.
Oliver intersperses the descriptions of this ‘disgusting’ scene with reminders that an ordinary poem usually has birds, rivers, waterfalls, and fountains because these are pleasant. “A person wants to stand in a happy place, in a poem,” she says. This sounds more like a reminder to herself that a poem is usually expected to be nice and happy. What she is talking about, however, is unpleasant.
In the fourth stanza, Oliver proceeds to narrate that the woman saw her as she turned her head, and smiled in embarrassment. They both smiled at each other. Oliver justifies what the woman does as the need for a job, in the line: “Everybody needs a job.” Finally on the 5th stanza, Oliver tells us what the woman is washing in the bowl. “She is washing the tops of the airport ashtrays, as big as hubcaps, with a blue rag.” It is only towards the end of the poem that we get to know this. Oliver has held us in suspense with this detail, this far.
Next, Oliver reminds us once again that poems have to have trees and birds because these are pleasant things. However, she closes the poem with the conclusion that even if this poem is about something unpleasant, the woman’s smile – a smile that was sweetly and especially given to Oliver – can very well be the pleasant thing in the poem, even if there are no trees and birds.
“Singapore” is an example of a piece of literature that holds the reader in sheer interest. It is so good that it comes off as way more than pleasant. Mary Oliver is a master at swaying the emotions of her readers.
