The Hum Symbol in Maggie Smith's Goldenrod

What Is the Hum in Goldenrod?

In Maggie Smith's collection Goldenrod, the poem titled "The Hum" introduces a recurring internal sound that the speaker experiences. The hum is described as a small, persistent noise "inside me" that the speaker initially mistakes for a bodily function—something coming from her bones. Later she reinterprets the hum as the soul. This shift from a physical explanation to a spiritual one drives the poem's emotional arc.

The hum is literally an auditory sensation: the speaker can hear it only when she is "quiet and still." She likens it to "an appliance left running," a mundane, mechanical image that contrasts sharply with the more profound meaning she eventually assigns to it. The hum is not loud; the speaker must "hold my breath to hear it," indicating that it requires active, deliberate attention. This listening act becomes central to the poem's meditation on trust, survival, and connection to something deeper.

Where the Hum Appears in the Collection

The hum appears only in the poem of that name, poem number four in Goldenrod. Its placement early in the collection, after poems about disorientation ("This Sort of Thing Happens All the Time") and naming ("Goldenrod"), positions it as a pivotal moment of self-reflection. The hum does not recur elsewhere as a concrete image, but its thematic resonance echoes throughout later poems that deal with listening, persistence, and internal experience—such as "Perennials" (where wind finds its tongue through leaves) and "Verse Chorus Verse Chorus Bridge" (where words "unzip" to make room for spaciousness).

The single occurrence makes the hum a concentrated symbol: it appears at a critical juncture when the speaker begins to doubt her ability to navigate a world marked by betrayal. The poem immediately follows "Animals," which confronts political cruelty and dehumanization, and precedes "In the Grand Scheme of Things," which questions how meaning is constructed. In that way, the hum serves as a quiet, private anchor against the noise of the outer world.

How the Meaning of the Hum Evolves

The hum undergoes a three-stage transformation within the span of the poem. First, the speaker describes it as bodily: "Years ago I thought it was coming / from my bones." This interpretation offers comfort because bones imply permanence and fidelity. The speaker says, "thank god for bones, for the fidelity / of bones—they'll be there / until the end and then some." Here the hum represents the reliable, unchanging physical self that persists even when everything else falls apart.

The second stage is a crisis: "Now what. How to continue." The speaker no longer finds the bone interpretation sufficient. This shift coincides with the poem's fractured questioning: "How do we live / with trust in a world that will continue / to betray us." The old meaning has worn out, and the hum demands a new understanding.

Finally, the speaker names the hum the soul: "I've started calling the hum / the soul." This redefinition elevates the sound from a mere physical phenomenon to a spiritual presence. However, the soul is now harder to hear: "Today I have to hold / my breath to hear it." The hum's meaning becomes tied to the speaker's capacity for stillness and inner listening. It asks an "unspoken question" that the speaker struggles to answer, suggesting that the soul's demands—or the hum's true significance—remain elusive. The evolution mirrors the collection's larger arc of surviving loss by finding new ways to perceive and name what endures.

Character and Theme Connections

The Speaker is the sole experiencer of the hum. Her internal life is the poem's entire focus. The hum represents her resilience after personal rupture—likely a divorce or deep betrayal suggested by lines like "at the end of our marriage" in a later poem. By reinterpreting the hum as the soul, the speaker reclaims agency over her inner world when external trust has failed.

Themes of survival and resilience after loss are central. The hum persists despite doubt; it "kept me company" even when the speaker thought it was merely bones. This unceasing sound becomes a metaphor for the will to continue living after a life-altering blow. The poem ends without resolution, but the act of listening itself is an act of survival.

Language, naming, and perception are also in play. The speaker explicitly chooses to "start calling the hum the soul," reinforcing the collection's theme that naming shapes reality. Earlier, in "Goldenrod," the speaker offers to let the flower name her; here, she self-names an internal experience. The hum's resistance to easy naming—it could be bone, appliance, or soul—echoes the poems' broader questioning of how words capture experience.

The need to listen closely is another thread. In "This Sort of Thing Happens All the Time", the speaker misidentifies a bird call; in "The Hum," she must hold her breath to catch the sound. This deliberate attention to the barely audible ties into the collection's insistence on noticing the small, overlooked details that hold meaning—like the wild violets and clover in "At the End of Our Marriage" or the objects in a son's pocket in "Not Everything Is a Poem."

The hum does not directly connect to the daughter or son, but the speaker's role as a parent underlies her need to find stability. The hum's prominence emerges after poems that reference children, and its quiet, persistent nature mirrors the steady love that continues even when trust falters.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does the speaker initially attribute the hum to her bones, and what comfort does this interpretation provide?
   The speaker thinks the hum comes from her bones because bones suggest permanence and fidelity. She says, "thank god for bones, for the fidelity / of bones—they'll be there / until the end and then some." This interpretation offers the comfort of a stable, unchanging part of herself that will not betray her, unlike the untrustworthy world she describes.

2. How does the use of punctuation in "The Hum" reflect the speaker's uncertainty about the hum's meaning?
   The poem deliberately blurs statements and questions by omitting question marks. For example, "How do we live / with trust in a world that will continue / to betray us" is presented without a terminal mark, so it reads as both a question and a flat assertion. This ambiguity mirrors the speaker's inability to decide what the hum signifies—bone, soul, or something else—and her struggle to find a definitive answer.

3. What does the hum's "unspoken question" suggest about the speaker's emotional state?
   The hum keeps "not asking / and not asking, never changing / its pitch." An unspoken question implies that the speaker knows something is being asked of her but cannot articulate what it is. This reflects her emotional paralysis after betrayal: she is waiting for an answer she does not possess. The silent question underscores her ongoing, unresolved grief and the difficulty of moving forward.

4. How does the hum connect to the book's broader theme of resilience?
   The hum is a constant internal presence that persists even when the speaker doubts her ability to find her way back. By renaming it the soul, she transforms a mundane sound into a symbol of enduring life force. The need to hold her breath to hear it shows that resilience requires active, quiet attention. This parallels other poems in the collection where survival depends on noticing small, tenuous signs of life—like perennials in abandoned lots or a child's pockets full of stones.