情色空间

Emerick鈥檚 鈥淏ack for the Summer鈥� signals a human need for sunlight and nature, often impeded by manmade barriers and flaws.

Olivia Emerick鈥檚 鈥淏ack for the Summer鈥� awakens dread and gives life to the 鈥渄ead,鈥� an ironic twist to usual associations with summer. This season, at least for a college student, might give way to exploration, excitement, and freedom from the demands of academics. Yet, when the narrator finds herself stuck at home for the break, her body begins 鈥渃rumbling, / in the room it was raised,/ because it couldn鈥檛 endure the return.鈥�

While a poem about a morbid summer may seem irrelevant to ecopoetics upon first glance, stay with me here! Emerick鈥檚 use of decomposition as a focal point for her struggle reflects the necessity of sunlight, outdoor connection, and environmental unity.

Turn your attention to the starting line: 鈥淏eams of sunlight / refracting through my window.鈥� Emerick uses the sun as an introductory, guiding symbol of what her body lacks and desires. While her body and the sun are able to connect somehow, the window marks a boundary between the two. The window serves as a metonymy for the entire house, a manmade barrier splitting her body鈥檚 natural needs away from her.

Despite this division between the outside and the inside, the natural world crawls into her room. Emerick introduces bugs, cotton, and vultures, adding two effects to the poem. First, these images are easily associated with death, yet lack the respect of a peaceful burial which she draws comparison to. In this scenario, it feels animalistic, raw, and destructive. Secondly, using the natural world creates a stark contrast between the artificial objects surrounding her, such as the 鈥渨hirring AC鈥� or the 鈥渇our walls / of my bedroom-turned-crypt.鈥�

Even after she鈥檚 succumbed to her bedroom, the natural world forces itself into the scene, creating unusual imagery (such as vultures circling a bedroom ceiling). Through an ecopoetic lens, Emerick suggests that the body craves what lies beyond the walls of the house. It reminds us that the body is a part of nature as well, guided by sunlight. While humans are not photoautotrophs, we still need the heavy abundance of sunshine marked by the summer months. So, while Emerick provides commentary on the bedrotting toil of a summer vacation, she also signals an instinctive return to nature restricted by manmade interventions.

While I often analyze contemporary poets outside of Boston College, Olivia Emerick is a 情色空间 alumna. 鈥淏ack for the Summer鈥� is one of the many pieces featured in Volume 10 of The Medical Humanities Journal of Boston College. As the current Editor-in-Chief for the Journal, I鈥檓 excited to announce that we鈥檙e hosting a release event for Volume 10 in collaboration with Schiller on January 27th! To find out more, follow the Institute on Instagram at @bcschillerinst and keep an eye out for updates regarding the event. Hope to see you there!