Poem analysis - Potatoes

For the food-related poem, I have analyzed a poem called “Potatoes” by Linda Hogan. 

Before going deep into the poem, I will introduce the author. Linda Hogan is an American environmentalist who also writes stories and poems.

Potatoes - Linda Hogan

This is the month of warm days

and a spirit of ice

that breathes in the dark,

the month we dig potatoes

small as a child's fist.

Under soil, light skins

and lifeline to leaves and sun.

It is the way this daughter stands beside me

in close faith that I am warm

that makes me remember

so many years of the same work

preparing for the quiet winter,

old women bent with children

in dusty fields.

All summer the potatoes have grown

in silence,

gentle,

moving stones away.

And my daughter has changed this way.

So many things to say to her

but our worlds are not the same.

I am the leaves, above ground in the sun

and she is small, dark,

clinging to buried roots,

holding tight to leaves.

In one day of digging the earth

there is communion 

of things we remember

and forget.

We taste starch

turn to sugar in our mouths.

Throughout this poem, the writer hints the similarities between potatoes and children. In the first verse paragraph, a contrast of temperature is shown. “The month of warm days” indicates the time of harvest of potatoes, which is usually in the autumn. On the other hand, “the spirit of ice that breathes in the dark” indicates the state of potatoes in the ground in winter, waiting to be harvested and a baby in the mother’s dark womb before being born. We know this because in the lines after, it says “Under soil, light skins” which is talking about the crops and the baby’s skin.

From the first line of the second verse paragraph, it can be seen that the baby is already born, and autumn has passed. It seems that it has been quite a long time since the daughter was born and the mother is being nostalgic for the past, because it says, “that makes me remember so many years of the same work”. We can imagine the scenery of old women plowing the field after the harvest to grow more potatoes for the following year.

The timeline of this poem is going back and forth. As you can see in the third verse paragraph, it says, “All summer”, which we believe is referring to the next year’s summer. “Moving stones away” reminds us of the vigorous vitality of potatoes in the ground. In addition, it also depicts the character of the daughter who overcomes difficulties in her life as she grows up. It is said that the daughter has grown and changed this way.

In the fourth verse paragraph, we can see that the time is set to the past again, and we know this from the line, “So many things to say to her but our worlds are not the same”. This is when the baby is still in the mother’s womb, as she describes her daughter as ‘small’ and ‘dark’. “The leaves, above ground in the sun” indicates the mother and “clinging to buried roots, holding tight to leaves” indicates the potatoes and also the daughter.

In the last verse paragraph, it is talking about the day of harvest and the birth of the daughter. Since there were few distinct statements in this poem, it was quite difficult to translate the last section. However, we believe the writer suggests that family bonds are strongly bound by the constant process of creating memories and forgetting some of them.