the quarrel

The Quarrel

Linda Pastan

If there were a monument

to silence, it would not be

the tree whose leaves

murmur continuously

among themselves;

nor would it be the pond

whose seeming stillness

is shattered

by the quicksilver

surfacing of fish.

If there were a monument

to silence, it would be you

standing so upright, so unforgiving,

your mute back deflecting

every word I say.

Throughout her poem, Pastan attempts to determine an accurate monument of silence that accurately captures its significance. The monument perhaps acts as a response to the poem's title, "The Quarrel," which is defined as an angry argument or disagreement, typically between people who are usually on good terms. As arguments are usually verbal or physical, the inclusion of silence suggests that the quarrel has escalated to the point when the participants cease acknowledging one another.

The narrator suggests that a tree would be an inefficient monument to portray silence, personifying its leaves as objects that "murmur continuously." Leaves are a part of trees, growing until they eventually fall off during the autumn time. Once they've left their trees, leaves dry up and die, ending the "conversations" they hold with the trees on which they grow. This silence would accompany the death of the leaves, but as they remain on the tree and make noises "among themselves," they continue to thrive, making them dependent of their tree.

A still pond is silent in both its sounds and appearance, only to be "shattered" by the fish living within its waters. These fish require water in order to survive, in order to live, and without the pond they would be dead. Although their jumps within the water appear to shatter the pond's stillness, this action also depicts their life. If the pond were actually still and unmoving, this would imply that there are no living creatures in it, thus no disturbances in the water. The silence, therefore, is broken by the life of animals in the pond. 

For a perfect monument, the narrator chooses an individual who stands straight and "unforgiving," his back towards the speaker. With his back facing the narrator, it appears as though this individual acts independent of the narrator, suggesting that he doesn't require the narrator to survive nor to live. However, the speaker lets it be known that his back is deflecting "every word" that the narrator says. This implies that the narrator may be dependent on the unforgiving individual, speaking endlessly in an attempt to have him turn around and speak himself. 

Unlike the other examples, the "upright" individual doesn't appear to have his silence broken by another counterpart. The tree's silence is removed as its leaves flutter restlessly, and the pond's silence is broken as its fish make quick appearances above the water. As opposed to the noises from the tree, however, the noises from the pond seem to be more disruptive. While the leaves "murmur," the stillness of the pond is "shattered," suggesting differences in the nature of which the silence is disrupted. However, the similarity is found as the noises are made from only the counterparts and not the full "monuments" themselves. For the individual, the only noise comes from his acquaintance, the narrator, and although this breaks the silence surrounding them, it doesn't break his own silence.

As mentioned before, the point at which this quarrel has reached appears to be when one individual, the unforgiving one, refuses to acknowledge the other, the narrator, both verbally and physically. His repulsion for the speaker and reluctance to speak suggests that they may be emotionally distancing from each other.