Reservation Love Song

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1991

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“Reservation Love Song” is an example of Postmodernist free verse. Many Postmodernists use free verse because it doesn't adhere to strict meter or set forms, meaning poets can be as playful and as transgressive with language as they want without any metrical, formulaic expectations. Even though "Reservation Love Song" is free from any prescribed meter, the form remains neat: only a few of the lines jut out, and most of the lines stay within the four-to-eight-syllable range. All five stanzas are quatrains (they contain four lines). The poem's deliberate structure bolsters the intentionality of the reservation system it describes.

The lack of meter or melody also undercuts the “song” aspect of the poem. There are no rhymes, nor are there very many melodious words in “Reservation Love Song.” The absence of meter creates a mostly flat sound that suggests the lives of the speaker and their beloved lack the harmony often found in popular love songs. Near the end, however, when the grandma enters the poem, some musicality kicks in with the repetition “we can sleep warm / we can sleep good” (Lines 19-20).

Syntax

Syntax conveys meaning through the arrangement of sentences and clauses. The only punctuation marks Alexie uses are one hyphen and two apostrophes, so the absence of grammar creates a bare syntax. It’s as if the poem is missing something. The lack of punctuation marks might symbolize the losses suffered by Indigenous people as a whole and by the speaker specifically.

Conversely, the grammar-free syntax represents rebellion. Even if the speaker and their beloved have to put up with HUD housing, BIA food, and IHS care, they don’t have to follow English, Western rules for grammar. Thus, Alexie strips the syntax of most punctuation marks to eliminate at least one American influence. This starkness also suggests that language and meaning both predate any set rules (like American English) that supposedly determine grammatical best practices. The bare syntax also lends the poem a song element, again referencing and amplifying spoken word over the set rules of the written word.

Symbolism

Symbolism is a literary device that helps tackle intricate issues and topics in an entity, thing, object, or person. Instead of laboring to explain a perplexing idea, the poet can economically pack the complex concept into one symbol. Alexie’s poem uses symbolism to highlight the history and suffering of Indigenous people. Instead of delving into the countless traumatic, horrifying details that compose the history of Indigenous people in the United States, Alexie stores them in objects, entities, and people, like the “one-eyed Ford” (Line 4), alcohol, government agencies, and the grandma.

Through the symbolism in “Reservation Love Song,” the reader can start to grasp the unjust, violent history between Indigenous people and America without necessarily needing to consult supplemental history websites or books. The carefully placed symbols show that the government isn’t much help, alcoholism is rampant, and hope lies not in further government assistance but in places beyond American hegemony—areas represented by the undomesticated grandma.