Elegy and the Impossibility of Recovery: Trauma, Absence, and Ethical Persistence in Tracy K. Smith's Poetry

Abstract

Objectives: This study examines the concept of recovery in Tracy K. Smith's poetry collection Wade in the Water through its dual meanings of healing and retrieval, asking whether her work enacts recovery by achieving healing or by rearticulating traumatic experience.

Methods: Drawing on trauma theory, particularly the works of Caruth, Eyerman, and LaCapra, the study employs qualitative textual analysis and close reading of Wade in the Water and I Will Tell You the Truth About This, I Will Tell You All About It to examine the relationship between history, trauma, memory, loss, absence, and recovery.

 Results: The analysis demonstrates that Smith's poetry does not present recovery as reconciliation or closure. Instead, it reactivates historical and cultural trauma across time while distinguishing between loss and absence. By assuming the role of what Eyerman terms a "carrier group," Smith transmits collective memory and cultural trauma without resolving them.

 Conclusions: The study concludes that recovery in Smith's poetry is best understood not as healing from trauma but as an ethical engagement with its enduring presence. Her poetry transforms elegy into a space of witnessing and remembrance, encouraging readers to compassion.