Famous

At the emotional core of Nye’s poem is her rumination on the complex dynamic between poet and reader. Given the necessary solitude of the poetic craft, where does a poet fit within the greater community whose illumination and inspiration they are dedicated to provide? How can the poet be at once apart and yet a part of that wide community?

The poem uses a pattern familiar to philosophers: if this is true, then so must be this. The opening seven stanzas set up the premise. When the speaker abruptly claims, “The river is famous to the fish” (Line 1), this observation upends conventional notions of fame by suggesting that the river is famous to the fish simply because the fish lives in the river and depends on it for survival. The speaker continues to notice all about her evidence of how things fit together, how things need other things to realize fully their potential, their utility, and their purpose. The open and hungry eye of the poet reveals the intricate design of the world using (and upcycling) the concept of fame and being famous. Everyday objects apparently strewn about the landscape carelessly and pointlessly are, in fact, quietly connected to things all around them, revealing an unsuspected design that in turn gifts each object with a radiant kind of connection.