American poet Dorianne Laux published “Break” in her debut collection of poetry, Awake (1990). “Break” provides a brief yet intimate look into Laux’s family life, in which she compares the construction of domesticity to that of a puzzle. “Break” is written as a singular, 20-line stanza, juxtaposing simple language against the poem’s more complex thematic content.

Laux’s influences range from Pablo Neruda to Adrienne Rich. Her poetry is distinctly feminist: confessional like that of Anne Sexton and resonant like the work of Lucille Clifton. Laux creates images that pull readers into a personal moment, examining the human condition with curiosity and deep compassion. Her poetry is subversive in its celebration of female sexuality and surprising in its handling of the mundane: Laux’s verse transforms boring, everyday moments into lyric sequences, leading readers to unique conclusions about life, love, and everything in between.

Poet Biography

Dorianne Laux was born in Augusta, Maine on January 10, 1952. Laux did not pursue higher education until she was in her thirties, earning her Bachelor of Arts in English with an Emphasis in Creative Writing from Mills College in 1988. Laux began her professorial career at the University of Oregon and went on to teach creative writing at North Carolina State University. She is also a professor for the Master of Fine Arts Writing Program at Pacific University.

Laux is the author of several collections of poetry. Her first full-length collection, Awake, was published in 1990, shortly after she received her degree in English Writing. Her second collection, What We Carry (1994), was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Facts About the Moon (2005) won the Oregon Book Award, selected by American poet and educator Ai Ogawa. Laux continued to see this type of success through to her fifth work of poetry, The Book of Men (2011), which was awarded the Paterson Prize and the Roanoke-Chowan Award in Poetry. Laux’s most recent publication, Only As the Day is Long: New and Selected Poems (2019), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and she has also received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts during her time as a publishing poet.

Laux’s poems are conscious of the everyday: the mundane experiences that make up an individual’s normal life. She is a grounded and compassionate observer, writing from the perspective of a mature, American woman. Her poetry interrogates her discrete identities as a mother, writer, educator, woman, and sexual being, examining how all of the singular parts of herself intersect and interact with a genuine curiosity.

Laux is the co-author of one collection of prose, The Poet’s Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry, which she wrote in collaboration with Kim Addonizio (W. W. Norton, 1997). Among her many achievements, Laux was elected to be Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2020, continuing her pursuit to shape the next generation of poets.

Laux is the mother of one daughter, and lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with her husband and fellow poet, Joseph Millar.

Poem Text

Laux, Dorianne. “Break.” 1990. The Library of Congress.

Summary

The primary image in “Break” is that of a puzzle being put together. “Break” provides a brief yet intimate look into Laux’s family, comparing her chaotic home life to the project she is attempting to complete with her young child.

The poem begins by acknowledging the singular pieces of the puzzle and how satisfying it is when the edges match up perfectly. Laux details how the images before her become clearer with each piece she connects: a “yellow smudge” becoming “the brush of a broom” (Lines 4-5). The puzzle itself reveals a home, a cottage surrounded by nature.

The home within the puzzle, however, is much more serene than the one in which Laux finds herself. The descriptions of the puzzle are quickly overtaken by descriptions of Laux’s daughter, pacing impatiently around the room, not yet understanding how lucky she is to have loving parents and a safe place to live.

Laux concludes the poem by comparing her daughter’s innocence to the loss that occurs as a person ages. She reintroduces the image of the puzzle as a way to frame the narrative.