Poem Analysis: "Edward Hopper and the House by the Railroad" by Edward Hirsch

Edward Hopper and the House by the Railroad

Edward Hirsch

Out here in the exact middle of the day,
This strange, gawky house has the expression
Of someone being stared at, someone holding
His breath underwater, hushed and expectant;
This house is ashamed of itself, ashamed
Of its fantastic mansard rooftop
And its pseudo-Gothic porch, ashamed
of its shoulders and large, awkward hands.
But the man behind the easel is relentless.
He is as brutal as sunlight, and believes
The house must have done something horrible
To the people who once lived here
Because now it is so desperately empty,
It must have done something to the sky
Because the sky, too, is utterly vacant
And devoid of meaning. There are no
Trees or shrubs anywhere--the house
Must have done something against the earth.
All that is present is a single pair of tracks
Straightening into the distance. No trains pass.
Now the stranger returns to this place daily
Until the house begins to suspect
That the man, too, is desolate, desolate
And even ashamed. Soon the house starts
To stare frankly at the man. And somehow
The empty white canvas slowly takes on
The expression of someone who is unnerved,
Someone holding his breath underwater.
And then one day the man simply disappears.
He is a last afternoon shadow moving
Across the tracks, making its way
Through the vast, darkening fields.
This man will paint other abandoned mansions,
And faded cafeteria windows, and poorly lettered
Storefronts on the edges of small towns.
Always they will have this same expression,
The utterly naked look of someone
Being stared at, someone American and gawky.
Someone who is about to be left alone
Again, and can no longer stand it.

Response:

In Edward Hirsch’s poem,  “Edward Hopper and the House on the Railroad”, I really enjoyed how Hirsch brought the house to life by describing how lonely it was through its actions. It’s strange, because looking at the painting, the subject it looks like an ordinary house. It is only after Hirsch describes it as being a building holding its breath underwater, and feeling shame for its exterior does the house in the painting begin to look more and more that way. Also, I really liked how Hirsch took an omninescent point of view with the painter (Hopper) and the house, rather than describing the house from the painter’s P.O.V.