Musical Tables: Questions and Answers
Questions and Answers About Musical Tables: 15 Evidence-Grounded Q&As for Study and Discussion
1. Why does the speaker in the chapter “Musical Tables” suggest the game's pointlessness might be the reason for its appeal?
Answer: The speaker observes that when the music stopped, no one knew what to do and the large tables were always in the way. Soon, this awkward situation became a new game that gained popularity despite its pointlessness. The poem closes by wondering whether that very pointlessness was the source of its popular appeal.
Evidence and interpretation: The chapter's final line poses the question directly, leaving it open rather than resolving it. This ambiguity is central to the poem's effect. The speaker's suggestion that meaninglessness itself could be attractive challenges conventional ideas about why people play games. It also sets a tone for the collection, where ordinary, seemingly pointless moments are often transformed into sources of wonder and humor.
2. In the chapter “Flaubert,” what does the appearance of wrong words at the window reveal about the creative process?
Answer: The chapter depicts Flaubert searching for the right word while several incorrect options appear at his window. This image suggests that the creative process involves confronting and rejecting wrong choices before arriving at the precise term. The wrong words are personified as visitors, making the struggle for the mot juste a visible, almost theatrical event.
Evidence and interpretation: The scene is brief, but it captures the tension between the writer's intention and the imperfect alternatives that present themselves. The window serves as a threshold between the writer's mind and the outside world, where language exists in a state of flux. This chapter connects to the collection's broader interest in the craft of writing, as seen in the Afterword's discussion of the small poem as a distinct form.
3. How does the chapter “Headstones” explain the pattern of a husband dying shortly after his wife?
Answer: The poem notes that when headstone dates show a husband died shortly after his wife—as with Gladys followed by Harry, and Betty followed by Tom—the cause is often gradual starvation rather than a broken heart. This explanation reframes a romanticized notion of grief with a practical, bodily reality.
Evidence and interpretation: The poem's turn from the sentimental idea of dying of a broken heart to the clinical reality of starvation is characteristic of Collins's willingness to undercut expectations. The examples of the couples ground the observation in specific, human cases. This chapter also touches on themes of mortality and the passage of time, which recur throughout the collection.
4. In the chapter “Pupil,” how does the speaker layer multiple meanings of the word “pupil” into a single poem?
Answer: The poem defines a pupil as a hole in the eye, then compares it to the dark center of an iris flower. It concludes by offering another meaning: a girl who gives the speaker a sidelong glance as she leaves the classroom after the others have departed. The poem thus moves through anatomical, botanical, and social definitions.
Evidence and interpretation: The progression from the physical eye to the flower to the classroom creates a chain of associations that enriches each meaning. The final image of the girl's sidelong glance adds a note of quiet attraction or awareness, tying the word's meanings together through the act of looking. This chapter exemplifies the collection's interest in wordplay and linguistic play.
5. What does the speaker's search in the chapter “Elegy” reveal about grief and denial?
Answer: The speaker turns over all fifty-two cards on the kitchen table but still insists that the addressed person must be hiding somewhere in the deck. This action suggests a refusal to accept loss, as the speaker searches for the deceased in an unlikely, domestic object. The card deck becomes a symbol of the randomness and hiddenness of death.
Evidence and interpretation: The poem's setting in the kitchen, a place of everyday life, contrasts with the enormity of the loss. The speaker's insistence that the person is still hidden among the cards reflects the mind's struggle to process absence. This chapter connects to the collection's themes of mortality, time, and memory, and it echoes the search for the dead found in other poems like “Headstones.”
6. In the chapter “Nurse,” why does the nurse say she envies the dead?
Answer: The nurse, resting her head on her arm by a window in a stairwell, says she is so many stumbles beyond tired that she catches herself envying the dead. The reason is that the dead look like sleepers in their beds. Her exhaustion is so profound that the peace of death appears desirable.
Evidence and interpretation: The poem captures a moment of caregiver fatigue that borders on despair. The comparison of the dead to sleepers softens the image, but the envy is still startling. This chapter offers a rare moment of darkness in the collection, showing the toll that caring for others can take. It also connects to the theme of mortality, as the nurse's perspective blurs the line between sleep and death.
7. What is the significance of Tom Thumb's thumb being too small to attract attention in the chapter “Tom Thumb's Thumb”?
Answer: The poem notes that Tom Thumb's thumb was so small it failed to get the attention of passing cars and trucks. It then asks what he was doing out there hitchhiking all by himself. The thumb's insignificance highlights Tom Thumb's vulnerability and isolation.
Evidence and interpretation: The unanswered question at the end leaves the reader with a sense of absurdity and concern. The chapter plays on the fairy-tale character's diminutive size, extending it to a modern, mundane situation. This connects to the collection's interest in reimagining familiar characters and stories, as seen in “Child Astronomy” with Goldilocks.
8. How does the chapter “Child Astronomy” reimagine the story of Goldilocks?
Answer: In this chapter, Goldilocks spends many hours peering into a telescope and then discovers a dipper that is just right. The fairy-tale motif of finding something that fits perfectly is transferred from a domestic setting to a cosmic one. Her patient observation is rewarded with a celestial discovery.
Evidence and interpretation: The poem transforms the familiar story of Goldilocks and the three bears into a tale of astronomical wonder. The dipper, a reference to the Big Dipper and Little Dipper constellations, becomes the object that is “just right.” This reimagining connects to the collection's themes of childhood wonder and the cosmic scale, as seen in “Night Sky” and “Orphans.”
9. In the chapter “Dog,” what does the speaker's speculation about the dog's dream reveal about the relationship between observation and imagination?
Answer: The speaker watches the dog run in her sleep, with twitching eyelids and churning legs, and wonders if she is chasing a squirrel or being chased by an angry farmer waving a rake. The two scenarios offer different emotional tones, one of pursuit and one of flight. The speaker's imagination fills in the dog's inner experience.
Evidence and interpretation: The poem's open question leaves the dog's dream unresolved, emphasizing the limits of human knowledge about animal consciousness. The two possibilities—one playful, one threatening—show how the same physical movements can be interpreted in different ways. This chapter connects to the collection's themes of nature and animal observation, as well as the role of speculation in understanding the world.
10. How does the chapter “Morning Walk” use the metaphor of poetry to describe a dog's behavior?
Answer: The poem describes a dog that stops often to sniff the poems of others before reciting her own. The act of sniffing is compared to reading poetry, and the dog's response is framed as her own poetic recitation. This metaphor elevates the dog's instinctive behavior to an artistic act.
Evidence and interpretation: The haiku-like structure of the poem mirrors the brevity of the dog's “poems.” The metaphor suggests that all creatures engage in a form of creative expression, even if it is not recognized as such. This chapter connects to the collection's themes of nature and animal observation, and it also reflects the Afterword's discussion of the small poem as a distinct form.
11. In the chapter “Eyes,” how does the speaker connect the human eye to the cosmos?
Answer: The speaker addresses the eyes as little twin spheres that echo the shape of the earth and match the blue curvature of the sky. The poem concludes by noting that the dark, descending birds always begin with the eyes. The eyes are thus presented as a microcosm of the universe.
Evidence and interpretation: The poem's imagery links the physical structure of the eye to the vastness of the earth and sky. The final image of birds beginning their descent from the eyes suggests that vision is the origin of perception and experience. This chapter connects to the collection's themes of the mundane and the cosmic, as well as the idea of the self as a small universe, as seen in “View from a Bridge.”
12. What does the chapter “Dictionary Wanderings” reveal about the behavior of silent letters?
Answer: The poem observes that the two silent “els” in “talk” and “calf” found a place of prominence in “llama.” The silent letters, which are hidden in common words, become doubled and prominent at the start of a less common word. This personification gives the letters a sense of agency.
Evidence and interpretation: The poem's playful treatment of language highlights the quirks and inconsistencies of English spelling. The silent letters' journey from obscurity to prominence is a form of linguistic wanderings, as the title suggests. This chapter exemplifies the collection's interest in wordplay and linguistic play, and it connects to the theme of language as a living, unpredictable system.
13. In the chapter “Teenager,” how does the image of a branch on an evergreen tree serve as a metaphor for adolescence?
Answer: The poem states that even a branch on an evergreen may take an unexpected turn up, down, or sideways and grow substantial in some weird direction. This image captures the unpredictability and nonconformity of adolescent development. The branch's divergence from the expected path mirrors the teenager's search for identity.
Evidence and interpretation: The evergreen tree, typically associated with constancy, provides a contrast to the branch's unexpected growth. The word “weird” suggests a departure from the norm that is both surprising and potentially valuable. This chapter connects to the collection's themes of identity and nonconformity, as seen in “Reflections on an Amish Childhood.”
14. How does the chapter “Falling Asleep” use the image of erasing footprints to describe the transition into sleep?
Answer: The speaker describes walking backwards into a dark forest and sweeping their footprints out of existence with a large, weightless branch. This action represents the erasure of waking consciousness as the speaker enters the unconscious state of sleep. The weightless branch suggests the insubstantial nature of this transition.
Evidence and interpretation: The backward movement indicates a retreat from the waking world, while the sweeping motion removes any trace of the speaker's passage. The dark forest symbolizes the unconscious mind, where the self becomes absorbed. This chapter connects to the collection's themes of mortality, time, and memory, as the erasure of footprints echoes the erasure of identity in death.
15. In the chapter “A Memory,” how does the speaker describe the return of a memory?
Answer: The speaker states that the memory came back not in the way a thing might be returned to its rightful owner, but like dance music traveling in the dark from one end of a lake to the other. This comparison emphasizes the indirect, atmospheric nature of recollection. The memory arrives not as a possession but as a distant, sensory experience.
Evidence and interpretation: The image of dance music crossing a lake at night suggests a memory that is both beautiful and elusive. The darkness and distance imply that the memory is not fully graspable, but its return is nonetheless vivid. This chapter connects to the collection's themes of memory and the passage of time, and it echoes the use of music as a metaphor in other poems like “A Memory” and “After the Concert.”