Robert Bly's poem, The Teeth Mother Naked at Last, originally published in 1970 and later included in Sleepers Joining Hands (1973), stands out as a landmark antiwar piece from the 20th century. Bly's approach was to challenge and dismantle the often sterile language used by the United States in public discourses about the Vietnam War. By unmasking these accepted phrases and political platitudes, he revealed their inherent falsity.

Unveiling the Facade of War Rhetoric

The poem begins with vivid imagery from the conflict in Indochina, moving progressively from striking beauty to the grotesque brutality of war. Bly then provocatively tells the reader, "Don't cry at that." He questions whether anyone would weep over natural phenomena like storms or the changing seasons. By comparing war language to that of unavoidable natural events, Bly forces readers to confront the sanitized facade of war rhetoric and the grim realities it conceals.

Sources of Language and Concealed Truths

Bly draws from a variety of language sources: military jargon, the familiar clichés of columnists and TV analysts, and political rhetoric, particularly from President Lyndon B. Johnson, whose Southern drawl Bly mimics through hyphenated text. In a near-furious tone, Bly insists that such language masks the truth. He outlines those complicit in these deceptions—ranging from ministers to journalists, professors to presidents—and equates their deceit with a societal death wish. For Bly, the American propensity for impersonal, almost indifferent killing reflects a deep psychic fracture, highlighting a grave spiritual deficiency.

The Mythological Underpinnings

The poem's title and theme are heavily rooted in mythology. Bly engages with the Great Mother archetype, a concept explored by Jung and later anthropologists like Claude Levi-Strauss, which demonstrates Western culture's tendency to reject feminine aspects in favor of masculine, logical traits. This myth provides a framework through which Bly interprets spiritual poverty.

The Four Faces of the Great Mother

In an essay titled “I Came Out of the Mother Naked,” part of Sleepers Joining Hands and following The Teeth Mother Naked at Last, Bly elaborates on the four manifestations of the Great Mother: the Good Mother, the Death Mother, the Ecstatic Mother, and the Teeth Mother. Using examples from archaeology, mythology, and early poetry, Bly validates each aspect. The Good Mother represents the nurturing hearth; the Death Mother embodies evil and the dark witch imagery; the Ecstatic Mother aligns with the muse of Greek literature, the source of creativity; while the Teeth Mother is her antithesis, a destroyer of spirit, inducing a lifeless state devoid of joy.

The Choice of the Teeth Mother

For Bly, the image of the Teeth Mother was particularly significant, emblematic of America's spiritual void. The Vietnam War, in Bly's view, unveiled a collective choice by Americans to embrace the destructive Teeth Mother over the nurturing, creative Ecstatic Mother. Thus, The Teeth Mother Naked at Last emerges as an extraordinary antiwar poem of the Vietnam era because it critiques the war on a profound psychological and existential plane.