Tuesday Poem: W.S. Merwin - The Moon Before Morning
The poems in this collection are quiet and elegiac. 'Where will the meanings be/when the words are forgotten', asks one poem. There are some beautiful images - I loved the refugee voles 'trickling' through the hay in this one:
Time in the Grass
In a few fields the first hay is lying
naked in its new fragrance as its color fades
and no one has stayed to see the noon light
dappling the small growth in the shade of the trees
beside the meadows that are still untouched
where the spring grasses go on rippling
in the shimmering daylight of their lives
and the voles clad in velvet shadows
trickle through their feet under the whispers
of the tall world while the clear notes
of crickets on all sides call keep calling
to the world to stay just as it is
they go on calling even when the grass has gone
I found a lot of favourites in this book. Lear's Wife remembers her daughters 'with Goneril at my breast/I looked at the world/and saw blood in the darkness/and tried to wake'. Telephone Ringing uses a line from Adrienne Rich as its starting point. Homecoming recalls a moment in the garden in late dusk when the poet looks up to see the geese returning from their summer migration 'half their weight gone to get them home'.
The Moon Before Morning
Published by Bloodaxe Books
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A lovely poem ...such a beautiful regard of nature. Thank you Kathleen and W.S.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this -- and so lovely to see how this poet looks back on life so reflectively and honestly. I'll look for this collection, after seeing your recommendation. And this --
ReplyDeletedappling the small growth in the shade of the trees
beside the meadows that are still untouched
where the spring grasses go on rippling
in the shimmering daylight of their lives
-- lovely how he pays with the sounds of all those participles.
Thank you for sharing this!
I also love the way he uses alliteration and vowel rhyme - 'few fields, first, fragrance, fades, naked, new,' and then 'hay, naked, fragrance, fades, stayed' - everywhere you look there's an echoing of sounds. It's very clever and utterly unobtrusive. Technically brilliant!
ReplyDeleteWonderful post. No punctuation, true, but a highly controlled syntax, with only two grammatical variations — the “call keep calling” in line 11, and the sort of single-line volta of line 13. Interesting how the “call keep calling” works as a final chirp in the spondaic cricket rhythm, or you might say, in Time’s heartbeat — the “few fields,” “first hay,” “noon light,” “small growth,” “spring grass,” “voles clad,” “tall world,” “clear notes,” then, finally, “call keep.” The chirping is what transitions us — via the volta — from that moment, at the foot of the grass, the “Time in the Grass” now, to the time that carries on when the grass is gone. Quite beautiful. Completely agree with you, a great selection, Kathleen. - Zireaux
ReplyDeleteThanks Zireaux - lovely analysis!
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