A Strange Kind of Love: Love and Disembodiment in Mark Strand’s poem “The Story of Our Lives”

Abstract

Abstract: The present essay consists of a deep analysis of the poem entitled “The Story of Our Lives”, written by Mark Strand, on the subject of the absence of physicality in the love relationship concerning that poem. I have chosen this poem specifically because it addresses several points that I have found significant regarding the characters in it: the space of the room, the experience of dreams, the failure of language, the dichotomy of body and mind, and the presence of the book as the ruler of their fate. I have followed a phenomenological approach mainly under the study of Drew Leder’s work The Absent Body and Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space.The relevance of my investigation relies on the fact that, although absence and disembodiment have already been described as some of the most distinguishable traits in Strand’s work,  the subject of love in his poetry has not been studied as a main focus.