The Three Fates by Rosemary Dobson

The Three Fates
by Rosemary Dobson
Rosemary Dobson’s unique backwards-poem reminds us that, however much we might want to, we can’t change the past.
‘The Three Fates’ by Rosemary Dobson is a five stanza poem which is separated into sets of
three lines, or tercets. Each of these stanzas is formatted similarly, in that (generally) the first
line is the longest, and the third line the shortest. Structurally, this poem acts as a narrative
with a clear beginning, middle, and (slightly ambiguous) end.
The title of this piece, ‘The Three Fates,’ is a reference to three goddesses from Greek
mythology Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. The three are responsible for human destiny and
are in charge of making sure that those who are meant to die at a specific time, do so.
Summary of The Three Fates
‘The Three Fates’ by Rosemary Dobson describes the life of a man who is forced to live
through the same events, in reverse, for eternity.
The poem begins with the speaker stating that the main character is on the verge of death. He
is in the water of a river and is about to drown. The man calls out to the “sisters” or the three
Fates, asking them to save him. They do so, but not without forcing him to pay a terrible
price.
When the man emerges from the water his life resumes in reverse. He puts his clothes on
backwards, returns to his home, and is forced to watch his true love grow younger and
younger. His life is falling apart, and there’s nothing he can do about it. He can’t even write
poetry from beginning to end and his tears fall before he feels sadness.
In the final lines of the piece it become clear that this is not a one-time occurrence. The man
has been granted eternal life, but only for this one specific period of time. When he reaches
the end, or beginning, of his life, everything returns to the moment before he fell into the
river, and it all begins again.
From the first line of this
piece the narrative position While the narrator and the
is clear. The speaker is a reader know at this point
semi-omniscient narrator that there are more
who is able to look into the
At the instant of drowning he invoked the three sisters.
troubles ahead for the
mind of the main character It was a mistake, an aberration, to cry out for man, he is unaware. He
and understand, and has been saved from the
describe, his motivations Life everlasting.
waters. He bobbed up to
and actions. Additionally, it
is important to note that
the surface of the water
this story is not occurring and makes it “back to the
as the speaker describes it, river-bank.” It is as if he
but is being retold at a later He came up like a cork and back to the river-bank, had never been in any
date. danger at all. He does not
Put on his clothes in reverse order, express any feelings of
The narrative picks up at
relief or thanks, he simply
an extremely dramatic Returned to the house.
moment in the main gets on with his life.
character’s life, when he is The next line is the first
on the verge of drowning. It
clue to what exactly has
is not clear, at the beginning
gone wrong with the
of the poem, how the man He suffered the enormous agonies of passion
got to this point in his life, speaker’s wish. He seems
but he is in quite a Writing poems from the end backwards, to be moving in reverse.
desperate way. He is about His life has entered a new
to lose consciousness when Brushing away tears that had not yet fallen. period in which he must
he cries out for “the three experience all things
sisters.” backwards. This does not
A reader should have been
just impact his direct
prepared for this experiences, but also the
Loving her wildly as the day regressed towards morning way he sees things around
invocation, having read the
title of the poem, ‘The He watched her swinging in the garden, growing younger, him. The next three
Three Fates. As described stanzas will elaborate on
above, the three Sisters, Bare-foot, straw-hatted. how his life has changed.
Graces, Fates, or Moirai,
are a group of goddesses
who are responsible for the
deaths fated for humanity.
And when she was gone and the house and the swing and
The main character asked
daylight
the Graces at that moment
to intervene on his behalf. There was an instant’s pause before it began all over,
While the reader does not
hear what he said, one can The reel unrolling towards the river.
assume it took the form of a
prayer.
Before the end of the first

stanza is even reached,
the narrator makes clear
to the speaker that what
the man has done is a
mistake. He should not
have tired to interfere
with the natural
progression of life and
death. He should not
have cried, “out for / Life
everlasting.”

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The Three Fates

Summary of The Three Fates

Before the end of the first

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