Chapter 48: 'Joke' – Summary and Analysis

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

The poem 'Joke' opens with the speaker describing what she believes is a dream. In the dream, she encounters a manifestation of the past and tells it that she knows it isn’t real. The past then shape-shifts, changing its appearance—new eyes, a new haircut—and the speaker forgets its name, along with what she was doing with it. She then recalls a joke about a river, though she notes it isn’t really a joke. The punch line of the river joke is that water never stays the same water; it flows past. The river’s current flows “now, now, now.” The poem ends with the speaker waking from what she thinks is a dream—a dream in which she tells the past the truth about itself—and realising that she has entered the present, which is always the present. The final line declares, “There is no past.”

Key Events

The speaker experiences what she believes to be a dream.
In the dream, a figure representing the past appears and is addressed directly.
The speaker tells the past that she knows it is not real.
The past transforms: gaining new eyes and a new haircut, the speaker forgets its name and her purpose.
The speaker recalls a river joke, noting its non‑joke quality.
The river joke is explained: water is never the same water because it constantly flows.
The speaker wakes at a specific time (past seven) from the dream.
Upon waking, she identifies the present moment as the only reality.
The poem concludes with the assertion that there is no past.

Character Development

The central character is the speaker, who appears as a self‑aware dreamer. She demonstrates a conscious effort to distinguish between illusion and reality: in the dream, she declares that she knows the past isn’t real. This act of naming reveals a growing clarity or acceptance. Over the course of the poem, the speaker moves from a dream state—where the past is mutable and forgettable—to a waking state where she fully inhabits the present. The shift suggests a character who is learning to let go of the past’s hold on her, or at least to recognise its impermanence. The speaker’s voice is contemplative and ironic (she calls the river commentary “a joke”), showing a gentle humour about her own entanglement with memory.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Dreams and Reality: The poem is framed as a dream, yet the speaker’s waking conclusion mirrors the dream’s insight. The boundary between dream and reality is blurred, emphasising how the past often feels both unreal and inescapable.
The River as Metaphor for Time: The river joke—that water is never the same water—echoes Heraclitus’s philosophy that you cannot step into the same river twice. Here it symbolises the relentless flow of time: the past is gone the moment it is experienced.
The Shape‑Shifting Past: The past is not fixed; it “reconstitutes itself” with new eyes and a new haircut. This motif suggests that memory is fluid, altering as we revisit it.
Now as the Only Present: The repetition of “now, now, now” and the final line “There is no past” underscore a theme of radical presence. The present moment is all that exists, and our idea of a separate past is an illusion.

Why This Chapter Matters

'Joke' serves as a concise philosophical pivot within Goldenrod. It distils the collection’s ongoing meditation on time, memory, and change into a single, dreamy episode. The poem’s insistence that “There is no past” challenges the reader to reconsider how we hold onto personal history. By using a joke structure (a setup, a punch line, a wink at its own inadequacy), Smith highlights the absurdity of trying to capture the past. This chapter matters because it offers a clear, memorable statement of one of the book’s core ideas: the present is all we have, and the past is only a story we are revising.

Study Questions and Answers

Why does the speaker say the river joke “is not really a joke”?
Answer: The speaker implies that the river’s constant flow isn’t humourous; it’s a plain truth about time. By calling it a joke, she highlights how our usual ways of talking about the past (e.g., “the river of time”) can become clichés that we treat lightly, even though the underlying reality is serious and absolute.
What does the shape‑shifting of the past reveal about memory in the poem?
Answer: The past gains new eyes and a new haircut, suggesting that memory is not a fixed record but something we continually re‑imagine. The speaker forgets its name and what she was doing with it, indicating that our emotional or intellectual engagement with the past can also shift or disappear.
How does the final line, “There is no past,” connect to the dream sequence?
Answer: In the dream the speaker tells the past it isn’t real, and upon waking she concludes the past does not exist. The dream becomes a rehearsal for this realisation. The poem thus uses the dream logic to lead to a waking insight: the past has no separate existence outside the present moment of remembering.