Completely Subjective: Brad Leithauser’s “A Good List”
Brad Leithauser’s “A Good List” describes many things he has never done. He wrote the poem while living in Iceland during a snowstorm, and the end result is a piece that he still laughs about. Born on April 3, 1943, in Traverse City, Michigan, Leithauser, a Harvard-educated poet, has produced many poems, essays, and novels.
My first thought on this poem was that he did these things and was never caught. But once I looked deeper into it, I decided this was a list of intrusive thoughts that never materialized, and that he only wrote them down to distract his mind from allowing him to sleep. This is why he goes into such detail in his list. In this writing, he is forcing himself to be as creative as possible to help him wear out his every-running mind. He starts the poem calmly with things that could be accidents, like how he “struck his dog, backing out my car.” This is a relatively calm, although disturbing, start, but as the poem progresses, it becomes more intense, featuring the practice of arson and “swindling a widow of all her stuff.”
The poem is a testament to memory, which makes us who we are. We see these memories being brought together with a mix of experiences, feelings, and thoughts. This allows the poem to emphasize the importance of recollection and make even the most basic details seem essential. This story allows for an escape to talk about how Leithauser handled intrusive thoughts as well as a way to set his mind to rest. As an insomniac, Laithauser spends many sleepless nights thinking, and his brilliant mind is constantly spinning. This causes him to have issues with putting it to rest, and using this poem as a confession area is meant to do just that. Even Leithauser has said that this poem has no real background and still laughs about it today.
I chose this poem because it complexly investigates the dull and deeper meanings of the more ordinary aspects of life. Its themes strongly resonate today in a fast-moving world where so many people are battling mental overwhelm and distraction. The creation of this poem is how Leithauser has decided to handle some of his life’s issues. He has twisted some of the darkest parts of people’s lives into a comical and lighthearted work. Leithauser does this by talking about the boring parts of life, such as “a nephew’s piano recital” (Leithauser), and showing his frustration with these events to seem relatable effectively. This allows him to joke about these everyday things while the more profound meaning remains. He has used this poem as a method of escape, and that is clear by now, but this is his final way of escaping the real world by joking about issues that can be serious. This book is also about who Leithauser is because of the last stanza. He talks about how he struggles with finding sleep while touching on his love for books. This strategically shows how the poem is personal to him in some way.
High school students can relate to this poem through two underlying themes: the need to deal with everyday issues and the issues of perspective and self-reflection. Throughout the poem, Leithauser talks about the frustrations of everyday life and how he thinks about comically dealing with them. This screams high schoolers; every day of a teenager’s life is about coping with the evergrowing frustrations of new responsibilities and expectations. We are constantly figuring out how to juggle a social life with extracurricular activities and schoolwork, which connects to the second theme of perspective and self-reflection. This poem reflects on his frustrations; high schoolers have to do this, too. They constantly reflect on what’s happening around them and find ways to deal with it.
Overall, this poem reflects upon the daily struggles that everybody has to go through. It takes a comical and fun approach to frustrating topics, which sets this poem aside. Leithauser will forever be renowned for his seamless ability to grab hold of readers and truly make them think and reflect upon the poem and themselves.