The Gift

In "The Gift" by Louise GlÜck, the little boy is calling oggie, oggie, at his front door.

This could mean several things, first we would have to look at clues. The poem states that the

mother is praying to GOD. One could infer that the boys dog died and he is calling without

reward to his lost friend. Therefore the most logical response would be that the boy was in

fact calling for his dead dog.


In the opening paragraph I stated what I thought the main idea for the poem was.

But that does not mean that is the only message implied. The child also was calling for

oggie, oggie, but in fact every once in a while a dog did stop by and the mom pointed

this fact out and said she hoped the boy would not call this an accident. That could mean

that the boys dog never died but ran away, and that god sent the dog back to them.


Another thing that could have meaning in this poem would be that the boy could

be calling for a friend to play with because he is unpopular with the other children. And "the

beast that always cam to him could be a bully. That could in fact be the real meaning.


The child at the screen door might just be a metaphor and what the child is really

doing is calling for someone to help him because he is ill. But yet all he does is become peace-

fully sicker. And the mom is praying for him to get better and hopes that one day true health

will come back to this youth. Or in shorter terms, The Gift of life.


Those were my guesses, or hypothesis of what the real meaning to The Gift were.

And I don't care how silly they may have sounded but those are what I think the meanings were.