18 pages • 36 minutes read
Jack GilbertTear it Down
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1994A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Heart
In “Tear It Down” the heart is a symbol of a person’s emotional center—a common and relatable means of representing feelings. The first lines of the poem read, “We find out the heart only by dismantling what / the heart knows” (Lines 1-2). Not conformed to the literal meaning, the heart here is personified—it “knows” (Line 2)—and the reader can interpret this in an emotional or metaphysical way. It could symbolize personal feelings surrounding love, home, identity, or any other personalized definition. This ambiguity allows the reader to project their own interpretation onto the text.
The significance of the word and its applicability across myriad contexts is essential. For example, when a person gets to the “heart of the matter,” it means they have reached an understanding of a concept. Further, the widely understood “heartbreak” is not literal, but an akin emotional struggle humans undergo when losing something or someone they love. Thus, the “heart” in these lines symbolizes and functions as an imperative emotional aspect of a person.
Pittsburgh
In the poem, Pittsburgh is the setting of the speaker’s childhood; it was Gilbert’s hometown. In the line before the first mention of the city, the speaker says, “Going back toward childhood will not help” (Line 8) before stating “The village is not better than Pittsburgh. / Only Pittsburgh is more than Pittsburgh” (Lines 9-10). The use of the city name is distinct, connecting the author to the poem in an emotional but also tangible way.
Growing up in Pittsburgh, Gilbert described in interviews the influence the city had on him during his youth. He described the city’s magnitude—the conflicting duality of harshness and grandness to be found there. Later in life, Gilbert spent time living in various villages, spending more time in contemplation and nature. The locations—both the villages and the city of Pittsburgh—symbolize Gilbert’s personal history and the memories and influences each setting had on him as a person. Yet he rejects comparing the two locations, offering instead that by redefining the cities and the memories they symbolize, he can come to a greater understanding of them. This is important to note as this acquisition of deeper knowledge through deconstruction is the overarching premise of “Tear It Down.”
The Body
The final lines of the poem read: “We must / eat through the wildness of her sweet body already / in our bed to reach the body within the body” (Lines 16-18). The meaning of body here alternates between the physical and the metaphysical. The second time the word is used, it functions as a symbol for the spirit, or soul (secularly) of a person. Physical intimacy is implied in the phrasing “eat through […] her sweet body already / in our bed” (Lines 17-18) which insinuates that the speaker believes the physical body can act as a vehicle to the metaphysical body (or soul).
The “body” here may also refer to the figurative body of life that humans occupy while on earth. In this reading, “eat[ing] through […] her sweet body” (Line 17) may not be literal at all, but instead a reference to how everyone must live life to the fullest by seizing opportunities as they arise. This offers a more abstract reading of the idiom “live life to the fullest.”
