The Empty Glass

What does life owe us? What do we owe one another? American poet and essayist Louise Glück (1943-present) considers these questions in her poem "The Empty Glass" (2001). Glück's poem responds to the human desire—and ultimate futility—to control fate. "The Empty Glass" contains themes of kindness, arrogance, and powerlessness as the speaker tries to find meaning in an unpredictable life.

"The Empty Glass" at a Glance

"The Empty Glass" Poem

Below is the poem "The Empty Glass" in its entirety. It was originally published in Glück's collection The Seven Ages (2001).

"The Empty Glass" Poem Summary

The speaker considers the ambivalent, unpredictable state of her life. Regardless of what she does or expects from the universe, fate seems to respond erratically. She states that she has always been aloof and cynical, even as a child. When her life started to go badly, the speaker prayed out of fear. Almost by accident, she began to grow as a person. Instead of getting upset or angry when things didn't go her way, she began to accept that she couldn't change fate. Her friends saw this growth as a willingness to let life do whatever it wanted to her. They felt bad for her, but the speaker says that she actually became a more prominent version of herself, "like a queen or saint" (29).

She says the most important thing is to keep trying to be good and hoping that good things will come, instead of expecting or demanding them to. When it comes down to it, humanity is powerless against fate as individuals and as a collective. Humans and their desires are insignificant to the forces of the universe. Agamemnon, the great Greek king, was a fool to believe that he could control fate with his armies and soldiers. Instead, things would have been much different if he had submitted to fate's power and didn't try to fight it.

Fig. 1 - Agamemnon was a Greek king who was punished for trying to control fate.

"The Empty Glass" Poem Analysis

The most prominent literary devices in "The Empty Glass" are allusion, metaphor, simile, and rhetorical question.

Allusion

The speaker uses allusion primarily to present and critique people who think they can control fate and the future. The first example occurs in the second stanza:

This allusion refers to the superstition that opening an umbrella indoors or putting shoes on the table will bring bad luck. The speaker argues that people are fools to think they can escape fate by avoiding these superstitions. When she considers humanity's powerless relationship with the universe, she says:

In these allusions, the speaker refers to superstitions thought to undo bad luck and bring good fortune. If a person accidentally walks under a ladder, all they need to do is walk under it again backward to escape their bad luck. According to tradition, throwing shoes after a person who is going on a journey is thought to bring good luck, and throwing salt over one's left shoulder gets rid of bad luck. The speaker calls these attempts to control life "sad tricks" (39) because they only give humans the illusion of control.

Fig. 2 - The speaker implies that superstitions like throwing salt give humans the illusion of control but have no effect on reality.

The final allusion occurs in the last stanza when the speaker references the Greek king Agamemnon's foolish belief that he could control fate:

Agamemnon was notoriously arrogant about the Trojan War. After he insulted the goddess Athena, she cursed Agamemnon and prevented his forces from sailing. To get his army to Troy, Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter, Iphigenia, to appease Athena. He also famously quarreled with the warrior Achilles and was slain by his own wife after the war, both because of his hubris.

Metaphor

The speaker uses metaphor to present the ambivalent state of her life. She compares the turbulence of fortune to a tide coming in waves. She says,

Like the waves of the ocean, fortune rises and falls. It is not a steady, consistent force but one controlled by outside influences. This metaphor also shows that things in nature—including people—are dominated by external forces.

Simile

Similes in "The Empty Glass" shows the power of giving in to fate. The speaker says that once she stopped trying to control the future, she became a more dignified version of herself:

Essentially, the speaker is saying that there is power in letting go. Her friends thought she was giving up; instead, she was living her fullest life. Instead of trying to control everything and getting upset when she couldn't, the speaker is now accepting everything fate has in store.

Rhetorical Question

Towards the poem's end, the speaker begins to consider the role humans play in the universe. Contrary to popular belief, the speaker contends that humans are not as important and powerful as we convince ourselves. The rhetorical questions consider humanity's actual place in the universe instead of the one we have designated for ourselves. The speaker wonders, "What are we without this?" (35), "What do we have really?" (38), and "What do we have to appease the great forces?" (42). By the end of the poem, the speaker still doesn't have any answer to these questions, revealing that maybe the answer is nothing at all.

"The Empty Glass:" Themes

The main themes in the poem are the futility of trying to control fate and the importance of kindness.

The Futility of Trying to Control Fate

The primary theme of "The Empty Glass" is the futility of trying to control fate. Throughout history, humankind has attempted to assert control over all aspects of life. Humans control the natural world through farming and keeping livestock, the rest of the world through technology and innovation, and—to some degree—even life and death through medicine and healthcare.

But for all the things humans can control tangibly, there are a plethora of intangible things they cannot control: time, mortality, fate, etc. Although humans do everything they can to control the future, fate cannot be controlled. The speaker says,

Humankind's power is extremely limited. There is no perfect answer for the meaning of life or what humans contribute to the vast infinity of space and time. All we know is that we don't know very much at all.

The Importance of Kindness

In response to the futility of the human condition, the speaker argues that kindness is the best course of action:

In a world where fate is indifferent to pain and suffering, the only thing that really matters is how humans treat one another. When the world is cruel, it is kindness that makes all the difference. The speaker says,

The point of living isn't to be good so that you will be rewarded. Instead, it's to be good because kindness makes the world better.

Fig. 3 - Humans can't control fate, but they can control how they treat one another.

"The Empty Glass:" Meaning

The title "The Empty Glass" refers to the idiom "Is the glass half empty or half full?" If a person sees a half-filled glass as half empty, they are a pessimist, and if they see it as half full, they are an optimist. The empty glass of the title refers to the way the speaker once viewed her place in the world. Pessimistic, closed-off, and self-centered, the speaker had a poor relationship with other people. She also believed that she could influence fate through her actions. The speaker has since realized her understanding of fate and humanity was wrong and says,

When her life changed and she lost everything, the speaker realized her flawed belief system. She learned that fate is unsympathetic and unmoved. So the only thing that gives any meaning to life at all is how we treat one another. Being kind won't change the future, but it does change how people experience life in this indifferent world. The meaning of "The Empty Glass" is that trying to control fate is futile, but being kind to one another makes the world a better place.