“The Story We Know”

The Story We Know
By Martha Collins

The way to begin is always the same. Hello,
Hello. Your hand, your name. So glad, Just fine,
And Good-bye at the end. That’s every story we know,

And why pretend? But lunch tomorrow? No?
Yes? An omelette, salad, chilled white wine?
The way to begin is simple, sane, Hello,

And then it’s Sunday, coffee, the Times, a slow
Day by the fire, dinner at eight or nine
And Good-bye. In the end, this is a story we know

So well we don’t turn the page, or look below
The picture, or follow the words to the next line:
The way to begin is always the same Hello.

But one night, through the latticed window, snow
Begins to whiten the air, and the tall white pine.
Good-bye is the end of every story we know

That night, and when we close the curtains, oh,
We hold each other against that cold white sign
Of the way we all begin and end. Hello,
Good-bye is the only story. We know, we know.

I really like this poem! It’s basically pondering the basic pattern that all guy-girl romantic relationships seem to follow. First there is the meeting, then the first couple dates, and then eventually, the “goodbye” - the ending. I love the simplicity of the words, how it presents something as complex as a relationship as so clear-cut and predictable. In the end, the author actually reduces the story to simply “Hello, Good-bye.” Those words are used in a pattern throughout the poem as well; they both appear in the first stanza, and then in stanzas 2–5 they repeat as “hello – goodbye – hello – goodbye.” So even the poem itself can be simplified to a series of beginnings and endings.

One literary device that stood out to me was the imagery in he last two stanzas. It mentions the snowing “[whitening] the air,” the “tall white pine,” and the “cold white sign.” White archetypally represents purity, however, here I think it represents the absence of something that should or could be there, specifically, the relationship. However, the white also makes for a clean slate on which the next “hello” can be built on. In light of this, and also of he repeating hellos and goodbyes, I think Collins is trying to convey the feeling of a repeating cycle that is impossible to break away from. The cold, white imagery also points to Collin’s tone, which I think is one of cool resignation. By this I mean that she understands the cycle of relationships, and acknowledges that it won’t change, and is mournful in seeing that, and yet tries to push away those sad feelings with an air of indifference.

Also relating to the imagery in the last two stanzas is the transition in tone or thought process that occurs in line 13. Collins transitions from talking about the typical details of a relationship to how it typically ends. Similarly, the imagery transitions from pleasant images about lunch and cozy time by the fire to that which focuses on the night, the closing of the curtains, and the whiteness of the winter outside. Winter is a season of death, or the absence of life. It comes every year, just as the end of a relationship seems to come as part of a cycle of hellos and goodbyes.