Morning in the Burned House

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.

Although “Morning in the Burned House” can be read without this knowledge, a biographical component is present. The poem’s “burned house” is an allusion to Atwood’s childhood family cabin in rural Quebec, Canada, which was destroyed by a fire around 1968. 

As Atwood recounts in an essay for The Times of London, this cabin “was an anchor point [for her family] for quite a long time”(See: Further Reading & Resources). Atwood helped her father build it when she was 11 years old, and the family lived there during the springs, summers, and autumns of her youth. Atwood notes that this cabin “was in existence for 18 years until it got struck by lightning and burned down.” While no one was injured during this event, Atwood speaks of the emotional loss she felt despite the fact that her family built a larger cabin at the same site. She explains that “when something burns down, in a location where you still go, it stays the same age it was when it vanished.” 

This “layer[ing] of time” creates an eerie feeling that Atwood has explored in multiple poems throughout her career.