The history of Red

In Linda Hogan’s Poem “The History of Red” there is duality encased within the dynamic nature of red. This is because when one wonders of the color red they ponder death and blood, merely destruction or creation. Hogan starts the poem in complete darkness, mentioning black as the only color; then she digresses away from the darkness to a new life or red “creation”.  This is a symbolic motif because red is a reoccurring theme but the symbolism changes in each example. The dynamic nature of “red” in this poem is necessary in order to portray the universal idea; because without having this duality between two concepts being conveyed the universal idea wouldn’t be strong.  The universal idea communicated through this poem is that the color red itself does not simply serve to imply or show one meaning or mood; because red can represent creation or destruction, as aforementioned. The color red is shown as magmatic of creation in line 19 which says, “Wearing the red, wet mask of birth,” But, red is also shown as ravaging in lines such as; line 28 “red is the fear”, line 46 “they divined the red shadows of leeches”, line 58 “as the red feather of war” and line 61 “and red was the soldier”.  Thus, the overall universal idea serves to explain that although red usually is associated with death and despair it can also be associated with happiness and joy.