Graduation / Evening
He told us, with the years, you will come
to love the world.
And we sat there with our souls in our laps,
and comforted them.
-Dorothea Tanning
Beyond what words can adequately describe or define, this poem makes me feel a lot of the same things that this week’s episode of GIRLS did. (If you don’t watch the show, you must start now!) It’s a weighty, yet expectant hopefulness about the world that is still so vulnerable as needing to be comforted and coaxed. These are words of fear, courage, and longing; the journey of emerging and becoming and growing up that is captured so brilliantly by Lena Dunham (from GIRLS) and, it seems to me, Dorothea Tanning as well.
The poem was first published under the title “Evening” before it was changed to “Graduation.” I think you need the combination of both titles to experience the depth of its sentiment.
