Memory

Memory is one tool poets use for inspiration. In Greek mythology, Mnemosyne was the muse of memory and the mother of the nine Muses. Memory is also the muse for "Ordinary Words." Stone begins her poem by recalling a specific incident from the past. She paints the memory of the event in broad brushstrokes. For example, she uses the word "whatever" to refer to the name she called her husband, and she employs general terms such as "clothes" and "middle-class beauty" rather than providing specifics about those terms. By describing her memory of the act in this vague way, Stone emphasizes that it is not so much the act itself she is remembering, but the emotional fallout from the act. She traces that fallout back in the last lines of the first stanza, depicting her marriage as a testing ground for herself, one in which she learned much...