The Darker Sooner
Catherine Wing
The Darker Sooner
Then came the darker sooner,
came the later lower.
We were no longer a sweeter-here
happily-ever-after. We were after ever.
We were farther and further.
More was the word we used for harder.
Lost was our standard-bearer.
Our gods were fallen faster,
and fallen larger.
The day was duller, duller
was disaster. Our charge was error.
Instead of leader we had louder,
instead of lover, never. And over this river
broke the winter’s black weather.
Video - Deforestation of Trees
Catherine Wing
Catherine Wings was born in Louisville, Kentucky. She lived and grew up there until she started school at Brown University. She then went on to earn her MFA from the University of Washington. Her newest poem Gin & Bleach won the Linda Bruckheimer Series in Kentucky Literature in 2012. Her first book of poems, Enter Invisible, was nominated for a 2005 Los Angelos Times Book Prize. Right now Catherine works as a general editor for the Wick Poetry Center's Ohio Chapbook series and is a current member of their advisory board.
Interpretation
In a lot of different ways throughout the poem, Catherine Wing talks about disappointment, and can even be interpreted that she says in the poem that disappointment leads to depression. Lines throughout the poem talk of the world deteriorating, and in one line specifically it says that there are no more happy-ever afters. The last line says that winter's dark weather has broken, the dark weather could represent depression. Everything in the poem led up to this break of depression, or darkness.
Theme
The theme throughout the poem is one of disappointment and deterioration, both leading to the break of depression into ones own life at the end of the poem.