Paul Maddern "Effacé" - Summary and Analysis

Introduction

Paul Maddern’s “Effacé” describes the speaker’s ambivalent reaction to receiving a “sterile” letter from a woman who he once admired and “hoped” they could “more” than friends. By the end of the poem, he recognises the absurdity of his old desires and that their relationship would have been a “lie”.

The Report

The story begins with “this sterile A4 annual report” and it seems the correspondence is nothing more than a drab summary of her life since they last communicated.

The speaker is incredibly disappointed by its business-like tone, referring to it as an impersonal “annual report” for shareholders rather than a handwritten, personal letter between old acquaintances. The daughter’s “aptitude for sport” is a phrase you would expect to read in a perfunctory, end-of-year school report and “Ted’s reunion” sounds more like an obligation than a fun occasion for the married couple. In this way, the infrequent “report”, defined by its technical “A4” paper size, lacks the warm details of close friendship.

The speaker’s dissatisfaction in the first stanza is epitomised by the effective use of that adjective “sterile” which suggests her letter is devoid of any real energy or life.

Ted’s Reunion

The speaker wants to know more than the “sterile” summary of her life, so he imagines how she was able to mesmerise the “accountants” at “Ted’s reunion” and left them “unconscious” with her wonderful elegance and beauty.

There is a very engaging repetition of consonant sounds in “accounts” and “unconscious”. The tongue-twisting consonance of the harsh /k/, the nasal /n/ and the sibilance, all combine into a tone of mouthwatering relish for her astounding beauty. It is a great line to read aloud.

Terpsichore, meaning the enjoyment and delight in dancing in Greek, was the goddess of dance and chorus. The speaker imagines the jealous husband “damning” this Muse because his wife is so graceful at the reunion.

The speaker is clearly hypnotised by his own fantasy.

Nora

The poem is dedicated to Nora. She was a ballet dancer the poet met when he was studying in Queen’s University, Ontario. Therefore, it is unsurprising that he defines her movement through the language of ballet.

The deliberately “seductive développé“, a movement in which one leg is raised and then kept in a fully extended position, and the smooth elegance of port-de-bras, a classical ballet term describing how dancers move their arms from one position to another, both suggest her performance must have been captivating. The speaker also wonders if the heels of her “sling-backs” allowed her to shape her feet into the “triumphant arches” typical of a ballerina.

These actions are all very theatrical and, perhaps, inappropriate for a prosaic reunion of accountants and their “suburban” world of spreadsheets and numbers. The speaker might be wondering if she is truly “happy” entertaining businessmen rather than an audience, or he could be expressing his disappointment that her talent and skills are being wasted.

The speaker was fascinated by her beauty and had “hoped” they could have been together: the second line recalls a well-known statistic that the average family consists of 2.4 children. He had fallen in love with her beauty and her “face” but, when he says he could have “lived a lie” for her, the speaker recognises it would have been a false identity.

This self-deception is foreshadowed by the title. When ballets were presented at court, the dancers were not allowed to turn their backs on the aristocratic audience and would move diagonally across the stage. Effacé describes how their upper body and head will remain “shaded” while their legs would appear open from the audience’s seats. In this way, the poem’s title conveys Nora’s elegance and allure, but also the fact she was orientated away from his view.

Swan Lake

Alluding to Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake”, the speaker describes himself as a “mincing prince” and his beloved as “swan”. In the famous story, Prince Siegfried falls in love with the leading lady, “Odette”, who has been cursed to spend her days as a swan swimming in a lake of tears. Together, they conquer evil and break the spell.

Interestingly, some productions delivered a darker and more tragic conclusion – the death of the protagonists.

Sexuality

Regardless of the version the speaker and his beloved performed, their relationship would never be more than a fantasy like the story of “Swan Lake”. If she was the ballerina, he was never going to be her leading man. This is obvious in the contrast between his “mincing” performance compared to the wonderful description of her elegance in the second stanza.

“Mincing” could also refer to an inability to talk with force or determination, suggesting the speaker lacked the suave words to woo his lover. However, the word really makes it clear he was too effeminate to be with the leading lady in real life.

When he was at university, Maddern was struggling to come to terms with his homosexuality. He admired Nora enough to consider a relationship, but it would never had worked. Therefore, the poem is actually a strong declaration of his identity and sexuality.

Structure

The poem is a sonnet with a volta that is typical of the form. This turn occurs at the start of the third stanza with the conjunction “but”. The disappointment and longing in the first section of the poem leads to the confident realisation that the speaker was never meant to have his fairytale ending.

Maddern may tried to deceive himself about his ability to assume the traditional role of a husband, but it was always going to be impossible. That is why the structure of the poem breaks brilliantly away from that traditional sonnet form to create a new identity.

There is no rhyming heroic couplet. Instead, he ends the poem with the imperative “nibble canapés my swan”, leaving his beloved at the reunion and accepting his own sexuality.

Comprehension Questions

The first series of questions focus on how the speaker presents Nora. What image in the opening line suggests she is beautiful?
How is her mesmerising beauty reinforced by the adjective “seductive” used to describe the “développés” and “port de bras“.
The speaker also describes the movement of her feet as “triumphant”. How does this image suggest she is graceful.
Finally, the speaker calls her his Odette at the start of the third verse. What does this reference to “Swan Lake” suggest about Nora.
Nora is clearly very elegant and beautiful. How do the “accountants” react to her presence during “Ted’s reunion”.
Suggest why the husband is “damning Terpsichore”.
From reading the opening line, suggest how the speaker felt about her. Make sure you consider the adverb “almost” in your answer.
Explain the antithesis between the “2.4” average family and the “sterile A4 annual report”.
Suggest why Maddern used the definite article “the” instead of the pronoun “your” to identify the daughter.
In your own words, describe how the speaker feels in the third verse.
What is the meaning of the word effacé? Suggest why it is an appropriate title.
Suggest why the sonnet form used for “Effacé” is appropriate for the poem.

If you are revising for CCEA’s Identity Anthology, it might be worth comparing D.H. Lawrence’s “Piano” to “Effacé” because both poems look to the past and the actions that shaped or defined the speakers’ identities. Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” could offer some connections in terms of the choices the speakers make in their lives.