"Scheherazade", Richard Siken

1) THE POEM

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2) VOCABULARY

11. inconsolable: unable to be comforted

3) ANALYSIS

(a) This poem is about spending time with someone you love, and not wanting the time to end. It is about how time can pass quickly when you are caught up in spending time with this person. When you are with this person, there is nothing that can get in the way of how you are feeling and you hope that nothing will cut the time short.  

(b) The theme of this poem is, most simply, love. The poem is about the excitement that you feel when you are around someone who means something to you. The line "the horses running until they forget that they are horses" is related to the feeling of carelessness and freedom that you feel when you are spending time doing something that makes you feel happy, like being around the person you love. You feel so free that you forget about everything and are only focused on this one moment in time. The line "and every time we kissed there was another apple to slice into pieces" is about the endlessness of it, how you feel like this period of time can never end. However, in "Scheherazade", the poet is telling the audience that, although it may feel like this time could never end, it eventually will. The poet is telling the audience to be cautious about this, and to not get too caught up in spending time with someone, because then when it ends, the pain you feel is even worse. The line "tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us" is the speaker of the poem trying to avoid the notion that carelessness and extended freedom can result in something that isn't so beautiful. It can end up making you feel lost and sad once it's over, and it can ruin your relationship with the other person once you realize that it cannot be just you and them forever, with nothing to worry about. The poet is warning against feeling so wild and brave that you forget how to come back into reality. 

4) PERSONAL CONNECTION

This poem reminds me of summertime and many nights that I've spent with friends, not worrying about anything and just having fun. The feeling that comes with having nothing to worry about is almost addicting. No one wanted those nights to end, and we certainly felt as if they never could. Of course, they always did, and soon enough we would be reminded of responsibilities we had and we would be pulled back into reality. Thinking back on these memories always evokes a feeling of nostalgia in me and this poem does the same thing. It makes me want to go back to a time when I had nothing to worry about and could just have fun with my friends. "Scheherazade" reminds me of nights I will never forget and also provides me with a reminder to never get to lost in the freedom of a summer night.