In the poem “OBIT (The Blue Dress)” by Victoria Chang grief is a big part of the poem. The poem talks about the death of a woman who wore a blue dress. The poem is about how grief always stays with you and there’s no getting rid of it.
The last sentence of the poem is where I learned what the poem was truly about. “Grief is wearing a dead person’s dress forever” shows that the only way to get through the grief of a loved one dying or even just someone you know is to let go. If you hold onto that “dress” forever then you will never truly heal, it will be following you for the rest of your life.
The way Chang is able to write about grief and death in a way that makes it seem beautiful is truly astonishing. In this poem especially she takes the idea of death that is cruel and sad and turns it into something beautiful, “but her words never came and we were left with the stillness of blown glass”. Death is a touchy subject for a lot of people so the fact that change can write about death in a way that’s intriguing and that makes you want to read more is very inspiring. Personally I have been dealing with a lot of grief this past year and this poem reflects some of what I feel. The grief never truly leaves but you just have to keep moving forward or it will hold you back. Death isn’t supposed to be pretty and even though Chang uses beautiful words it doesn’t take away from the fact that the woman is dead.
Most of Chang’s poems that I have read can be pretty choppy and are split up into stanzas but this one flows more easily then the others. Her past poems are also very confusing and take a couple of re reads to understand what message she is trying to convey but this one it took reading it once to understand the meaning. This is one of my favorite poems I have read of hers because of the topic at hand. I can relate it to my life in a way I haven’t been able to with other pieces of her work.
Chang is an incredible writer and has always had the ability to make you feel with her words. The way she writes about the woman dying makes you feel like you are experiencing it with her. From the way she writes about the silence coming from the women to her life before her death, it shows that even if a poem doesn’t personally relate to you you can still understand the emotions behind the words.
The poem is a perfect example of how death and grief will follow you around forever. The words Chang chose to use helps set up the story of the woman and her funeral to help the reader take away one thing, make sure to let go or it will follow you around forever.
