Debra Marquart Poetry Analysis

Debra Marquart uses her poetry to explore ideas of identity and projection. Specifically, how people tend to project their own stories and ideas onto passing strangers. When interacting with or observing a stranger there is no context to what they were doing before you crossed paths. Marquart’s poem is clearly not talking about herself when she creates these interesting backstories for a person she has no understanding of. This is exemplified by the statement, “I think of the one to whom bad news is coming”. In essence the poem is showing a very basic human principle of projection of one’s own ideas and concepts onto a completely different person. When Marquart writes “…she thinks of her lover… the one she left behind, or … will see again” are parts of a story that Marquart would think is interesting or give depth to this totally foreign individual. The idea of how this person will cope with bad news is simply a sort of rack to hang the story on. The focus is on the theoretical life story of the stranger, who is the subject of her projection. When Marquart hears the phone ring “like an emergency” down the hall, she has no way of knowing what it is about. An interesting twist for the backstory of the stranger is if it is tragic news. In this way, may seem like it is simply about how one deals with
Well, because everything about the stranger is unknown, it just doesn’t seem right. We as humans want everything to be clearly defined. The stranger represents an ambiguity and people simply do not like to deal with that. So, the best coping mechanism we have for dealing with this type of ambiguity is to create an identity. The “one to whom bad news is coming” becomes the subject of Marquart’s own story featuring elements that Marquart would find compelling in this stranger’s character. In this way, it is possible to see elements of Marquart’s own character as she has projected parts of her own identity onto her created