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On August 11, 1897, Daniel Bogan and Mary Sheilds had their daughter Louise in Livermore Falls, Maine ("The Mark (audio only)"). Her and her family of four moved around throughout the Northeast("Louise Bogan's Life and Career"). She had done greatly in school however, and attended Boston Girls' Latin School ("Louise Bogan's Life and Career"). At this point she had already been reading and writing poetry. Her mother's affairs with Daniel were a great rock on Louise's shoulders since she was young and one day, Bogan visited her mother. In the hospital room there was a vase containing marigolds (Louise Bogan's Life and Career"). This setting is what sparked her poetic writing style of design and contrast ("American Poets of the 20th Century"). Her first marriage took place in 1916 with a man named Curt Alexander (Louise Bogan's Life and Career"). One year later had a child, then a few after that, they were separated ("The Mark (audio only)"). By 1920 she was widowed ("Louise Bogan's Life and Career"). This is when Bogan and her daughter moved to New York (The Mark (audio only)"). This is where she started a career out of her writing ("Louise Bogan's Life and Career"). She eventually met her future mentor, Edmund Wilson (Louise Bogan's Life and Career"). He gave her the push to write for periodicals so that Louise could have a reliable income method ("Louise Bogan's Life and Career").
Bogan's first book was published a year after T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land ("Louise Bogan's Life and Career") . It was called Body of This Death and featured "brief, limited in theme, and highly formal" poetry (Louise Bogan's Life and Career"). It talks about love and grief ("Louise Bogan's Life and Career").
She married writer Raymond Holden during her best years as a books ("The Mark(audio only)"). Later she became a poet critic, thought to be the best by some ("Louise Bogan's Life and Career). She would also translate poems an mentor younger writers ("Louise Bogan's Life and Career").
Her death resulted from her life-long problems with depression on February 4, 1970 ("American Poets of The 20th Century").

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1- Now that I have your face by heart, I look

2- Less at its features than its darkening frame

3- Where quince and melon, yellow as young flame,

4- Lie with quilled dahlias and the shepherd’s crook.

5- Beyond, a garden. There, in insolent ease

6- The lead and marble figures watch the show

7- Of yet another summer loath to go

8- Although the scythes hang in the apple trees.

9- Now that I have your face by heart, I look.

10- Now that I have your voice by heart, I read

11- In the black chords upon a dulling page

12- Music that is not meant for music’s cage,

13- Whose emblems mix with words that shake and bleed.

14- The staves are shuttled over with a stark

15- Unprinted silence. In a double dream

16- I must spell out the storm, the running stream.

17- The beat’s too swift. The notes shift in the dark.

18- Now that I have your voice by heart, I read.

19- Now that I have your heart by heart, I see

20- The wharves with their great ships and architraves;

21- The rigging and the cargo and the slaves

22- On a strange beach under a broken sky.

23- O not departure, but a voyage done!

24- The bales stand on the stone; the anchor weeps

25- Its red rust downward, and the long vine creeps

26- Beside the salt herb, in the lengthening sun.

27- Now that I have your heart by heart, I see.

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TITLE- When Bogan references the 'last act', it could mean the end of something, not technically the end of a show. It may have some relations to the structure of a song.

PARAPHRASE-  (Next Post)

CONNOTATION-
Parallel Structure/Repetition- "Now that I have your face by heart, I look" (lines 1, 9, 10, 18, 19, 27) Bogan uses Repetition in her poem to emphasize the speaker's realizations.
Simile- "Yellow as young flame" (Line 3) The simile means something is bright and new, like the speaker's optimism.
Juxtaposition- "Where quince and melon, yellow as young flame, Lie with quilled dahlias and the shepherd’s crook." (Lines 3-4) The contrast of the bright flame to the 'quilled dahlias' and a 'shepherd's crook' reference the dark shadow of hostility the speaker's relationship has cast over their happiness.
End Rhyme- "Read...Page...Cage...Bleed" ABBA rhyme pattern

Personification- "Words that shake and bleed" (Line 13)
Apostrophe- "O not departure, but a voyage done!" (Line 23)

ATTITUDE-
The epiphany of the depression of her relationship

SHIFT- Line 19

TITLE- The title references the end of a relationship, calling it 'the last act'

THEME- One can only move on after letting go of their past.

Point of View- The point of view is is first person because of the use of 'I' and personal thoughts. the speaker is most likely Louise Bogan due to her relationship with her husband.

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Now that we have been together for so long, I seem

To know you less as you turn away from me

Where happiness and optimism, bright as fire,

Lie with pessimism and hostility.

Beyond our lives, in arrogance

Bystanders watch our love

Of another time I do not want to go to

Though strong hostility is gone for now.

Now that we have been together for so long, I seem.

Now that I know your voice, I am

Saddened by the situation that is only worsening

People that are not meant to be together,

Whose tempers only worsen with hurtful words.

My insides are bare

With emptiness. In my dreams

I replay our fights

It is moving too fast. Things only get worse.

Now that I know your voice, I am

Now that we have been together for so long, I look

And see life outside of you;

The opportunities

I could have without you.

O not goodbye, but a mission accomplished!

Our lives will go on

With our past behind us

Our futures will be brighter.

Now that we have been together for so long, I look beyond.

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Biographical
Bogan's marriage with Curt Alexander could be reflected in "Song For The Last Act". She was so in love with having someone provide love for her that she married him shortly and even had a kid. But only one year after her marriage, she saw the "darkening frame" of his face instead of his physical attractiveness and interests in her. The entire poem can make any reader see that it is hard to break off a romance quickly by the way she contrasts on how she used to view her partner versus after her epiphany of them. Until Bogan is able to see "[his] face" is she able to see the unlovingness.

Gender/Feminism
It is highly common for females to fall into relationships and then be unable to get out of one due to the construct that women are nothing unless romantically involved with a man and have a kid. Louise even having followed this role (and ending up unhappy), her writing is even more impactful, and filled with sincerity.

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When Bogan started writing her first pieces in the 1920s. "The Roaring Twenties" is a time of female revelations and dissatisfaction with societal forms. Her writing often reflects this new thought in many of her works being related to feminist ideals such as "Women" and "Song For The Last Act". During The Great Depression she was living in New York, receiving a stable income, however still wrote poems regarding the feminist topic and her own life struggles outside of the economic crisis, however this could have an indirect effect on her personality and living conditions.

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Ariel- TPCASTT, Paraphrase, POV, Digital story, Works cited, Images

Alex- Audio, Biography, Citations, Study guide, Time Period, Critical perspectives