Dressage by Loma Crozier - Essay Example

As she goes on to bring the old trainer into the picture, the tone changes into one of nostalgia for the past. Crozier now voices her compassion for the frailty of old age: the old man, “tugged from sleep / by his own marrow aching, limped to the meadow” (9-10), in search of comfort. The poet then assumes a tone which evokes intimacy, and togetherness: the man and the mares stand “almost touching” (Crozier, 25). Crozier then ends on a note of exhilaration, as the reader watches “the stallion in his beauty / slowly dance” (30-31).

The overall tone evokes an emotional response of tenderness from the reader.Crozier effectively highlights the similarities between the stallion and the old trainer. Obviously, there is the similarity of gender: man and stallion. The stallion is old, with his “knees and forelock stiff” (Crozier, 5). The man, sharing the stallion’s physical infirmities, “limped to the meadow” (Crozier, 10). The poet emphasizes that the ravages of old age have deeply penetrated the physique of both the horse and the man.

Man and animal are old ‘to the bone.’ In the case of the stallion, “what was light in his bones turned to clay” (Crozier, 7). Likewise, the man is kept awake by “his own / marrow aching” (Crozier, 9-10). The stallion and his trainer face old age together. The man and the horse are inextricably linked by the years of ‘dressage’ which they have shared. The stallion’s dance is but the expression of his trainer’s emotion: “Something seemed to grow from his longing” (Crozier, 19). . The old trainer seeks comfort from the presence of the horses: the image of “balm lapping over him / a warm and healing stream” (Crozier, 13-14) metaphorically evokes the picture of a soothing ointment, or the flow of warm water, healing a wound.

Here, it is the internal wounds of the man’s psyche which are being healed by the presence of his beloved horses. Again, Crozier uses the simile “graceful as wind smoothing / the blue of flax or a woman’s fine hair” (17-18) to convey the beauty of the stallion’s dance. The reader is reminded that ‘dressage’ resembles ballet in the grace of its movements. The poet uses literal and figurative imagery to paint pictures in the reader’s imagination. “Dressage” is written in free verse.

Its open form does not conform to any traditional structure. The lines and stanzas vary in length and meter. The first two stanzas comprise of seven lines each. The stanzas demonstrate a solidity, which organizes the narrative content of the poem’s beginning and are suited to the story-telling tone. The lines are more or less similar in length. The only line which is obviously short is “the white stallion” (Crozier, 2). This makes the line stand out by itself, and makes the subject of the poem prominent.

It emphasizes the importance of the horse. The last two stanzas differ, having four and eight lines respectively. Here again, the single-word line, “watched” (Crozier, 29), makes for emphasis, and makes the reader aware of being a spectator at the dance. The third stanza comprises of five lines. This stanza links the first and second halves of the poem, and plays the role