Hotel d'Avignon - an analysis

For our next assignment, we were told to deeply study another Waldrep poem that was not a Battery poem. I chose to look at Hotel d'Avignon because I felt a connection with the imagery and it was one of the poems in "Disclamor" that really captured my imagination.

To begin with, I tried to look into the meaning of the title. Avignon is a place in France. During the 14th century, a series of popes decided not to live in Rome, but in an enclave in Avignon instead. Translated, of course, "hotel d'avignon" means "Hotel Avignon"... or, a hotel IN Avignon. I've noticed that the titles in Disclamor are often very hard to interpret... I think this is one of those times, although the poem does sort of have the same feeling as Avignon - beautifully crafted and also slightly rebellious, like the popes who lived in France instead of Italy.

"Hotel d'Avignon" is a poem made up of one stanza with 28 lines of mostly medium-long length (with a few medium-short lines thrown in here and there). There are many cases of enjambment throughout the poem. There is no rhyme scheme or particular meter. The poem has a very strong sense of the narrator's voice - it uses "I" many times, and the persona is the 'main character.'

A few words I looked up or translated:

• patois - something like a regional dialect, or the jargon/slang of a particular region
• portico - a roof held up by columns, sometimes attached to make a porch

Another note: In this poem, there are three "characters." The persona, the religious (a group of people, who fear what the persona has to say and hide from him. A connection between the title of the poem and the content!), and the persona's mother.

The very first line of the poem, "The religious cry in their patois of sand and dust." Here, the religious are introduced. They are already shown in a rather negative light - they are crying, mournful. Their speech, "patois," which is different from the persona's speech (he later mentions), is likened to sand and dust. This is an interesting image - not only does it capture the raspy quality of old voices, but also the idea that their ideas are dying, turning (returning?) to dust. The idea of turning to dust isn't a positive one with us!

2nd line - "If I could find the portico I would repaint the columns." The idea of change is brought immediately following the introduction of the persona. He wants to reinvigorate the "hotel" by repainting it, but he can't find it.

Lines 3-8 - Here the image of the key is brought up. The persona can't get to the portico because no one has given him a key to open the doors of the hotel and wander about. However, he has a piece of paper (and presumably a pen or pencil), so he simply sketches the image of a key.  He is a good artist, so he draws the key very well, with lots of dimension, making it seem real. The image of the key is an important one. The fact that the key is on paper leads me to imagine that here Waldrep is talking about words, poetry. As he is a poet himself, he uses his skill in crafting words (keys) to give himself access to things he wants to explore. Through his words, he can explore new ideas, change old ones, or, in fact, do anything he wants. I think this is the main image/message of the poem - the idea that words are like keys, opening any door imaginable.

9-14 - The persona uses his key to get into the hotel, and begins wandering around. He comments again on the sameness/oldness of the place when he says that "night is always the same here." Outside the hotel, the religious are hiding from him, "fragment"ing into the grass. The persona knows that his key is a good one, but the religious are still afraid of it and are trying to get away from it. Here is the idea of the old fighting against the new. The religious don't even want to come near the new ideas Waldrep is exploring with his words. They hide from it in the shadows.

15-18 - Here, the religious spend the entire night cursing the key and the persona for having it. They hope that he will either lose the key or leave it behind. The fear of the old to change is brought up here again. Even though the old are being slightly more active here, muttering curses from their hiding places all night long, they are still very passive. They don't try and get rid of the key, they only hope that it will be lost or left behind. At the very least, they hope the persona will keep his key to himself and not use it to make anything change.

19-22 - here, the persona tries to reason with the religious. He tries to tell them that "everything in the world is a knife,/ everything in the world cuts a little away from you." He is trying to explain to them that the way they did things was wrong, too, and that he is just trying to find a better way, a way that doesn't cut quite so much away from you. But the religious don't even speak the same language as him - they not only DON'T listen to his ideas, they CAN'T. Despite not being able to hear his reasons, of course, they still fear the idea and wish it gone.

23-26 - the persona goes on with his life, using his key to do various things. Sometimes he thinks about "drawing a new key" and sometimes, in fact, he does. This is another example of continuous change. The persona isn't afraid to reexamine what he knew before or try and find a new way to think about things, a new answer.

27-28 - here is the introduction of the persona's mother, who used to tell the persona that "light is untidy" and that he should "collect the rays scattered about you." Does this mean the persona holds a sense of wanting to tidy up his thoughts, which is why he is always searching for a new key? Does this mean that he wishes he could stop his search and just come up with a concrete answer, like the religious? Or does it mean that by gathering all his thoughts and trying to make them work, he is doing what his mother told him to do? I think these are all possible interpretations of these last two lines, although I think I like the final interpretation best - the idea that his quest for more knowledge, more understanding, is driven by his need to understand the world and make it fit into some kind of structure is one that I can relate to. Also the fact that he uses words from his own hand, things he has created, to find these answers is a very appealing one. I think anyone who has done creative writing can relate to this poem, which is why I like it.