The Third Dimension

se Levertov’s “The Third Dimension” speaks of tragedy and loss, most likely of a loved one. It speaks of the fighting emotions of living and dying, happiness and grief – struggling through life with an obvious emptiness.

“Who’d believe me if I said, ‘They took and split me open from scalp to crotch, and still I’m alive, and walk around pleased with the sun and all the words bounty’.”

The death of a loved one caused the person speaking to feel as though they were split open and gutted. A mental image of this is a hunter gutting a dead animal. The author is saying that the death of a loved one feels as though they are ripped apart like a dead man, and yet they still live; they still walk around in the sun “and all the world’s bounty”.

“Honesty isn’t so simple: a simple honesty is nothing but a lie.”

Emotions are not simple after tragedy. They are tangled up; they are messy. They are confused. If a person tries to put it into words simply, they do not tell all of the truth.

“Don’t the trees hide the wind between their leaves and speak in whispers?”

This is a metaphor for what happens after the loss. Different emotions and thoughts are always hidden, speaking only in whispers. Grief is pushed down, maybe to come out as a harsh wind later. Emotions are not simple. Honesty during this time is not simple.

This is because:

“The third dimension hides itself.”

“If the roadmen crack stones, the stones are stones:

but love cracked me open and I’m alive to tell the tale…”

Inanimate objects cracked open and ripped apart are still inanimate objects. They are neither alive nor dead. Humans cracked open and ripped apart from grief, on the other hand, feel as though they are dead, while also feeling very much alive.

“…and I’m alive to tell the tale – but not honestly:

the words change it.”

They are living while the person is gone. They physically can tell what they are experiencing. However, as stated before, emotions are tangled up and messy. It is impossible to put everything into words. Words that someone attempts to say changes what actually happened, because it is impossible to say exactly what happened. Loss causes everything to feel like an ocean of emotion and numbness and grief and anger washing over you. How can a person put an ocean into words? Words that attempt to do this change the tale.

“Let it be – here in the sweet sun – a fiction, while I breathe and change pace.”

Words can make the situation sound better than it is. The author is saying: let it be. Let the story make it sound better. Let the story change the truth. Breathing and changing pace gives the feeling that they are going through the motions.  The author is saying that he/she will simply live and let the story be while they heal.

**all quotes from “The Third Dimension” in The American Tradition in Literature pg 1488-1489