God rewards.
Her tongue shrivels into gas...
Here, Glück juxtaposes two uncomfortably contradictory ideas to shed light on her speaker's internal conflict. Remembering the self-defensive violence she enacted against the witch, Gretel attempts to justify her actions with the phrase "God rewards," arguing that the witch's death was a justified and even divinely ordered retribution. However, the phrase also hints that Gretel herself performed a godlike role by killing the witch, taking on responsibilities unfit for children. Following a line break, however, the speaker finds that her guilt overtakes her attempt at justification: the sheer vividness and specificity of her memories overwhelms her rationalization.
Now, far from women's arms
and memory of women, in our father's hut
we sleep, are never hungry.
Here, Gretel explicitly affirms that she and her brother are safe: they are as distant as possible from women, who have generally harmed them, and are cared for in their father's house. However, the word "arms" carries multiple meanings, hinting at Gretel's complex feelings. The phrase "women's arms," when interpreted as meaning "weaponry," implies that the children are safe from the violence that women have enacted against them. But "arms" may also refer to the body part, and in this sense, Gretel seems to be implying that she is cut off from intimacy with other women, rendering her isolated and lonely.
Spies
hiss in the stillness, Hansel,
we are there still and it is real, real,
that black forest and the fire in earnest.
The speaker's language here reveals the extent to which she inhabits a completely different reality from her brother, her trauma making her feel as if the dangers she faced in her past are ever-present. She uses the present tense to describe their experience of danger in the forest, implying through her syntax that it has not ended in any meaningful way. Through the repetition of S, F, and L sounds, Glück makes the reader feel immersed in the whispering, sinister forest, making these dangers feel as real to the reader as they do to Gretel. The name "Hansel" contains several of these sibilant sounds, implying that Gretel's beloved brother has become sinister to her as well.
