Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"Discordants: 2" by Conrad Aiken is a vivid and emotionally charged poem that continues the themes of loss and longing found in the first "Discordants" poem. This poem uses urban imagery to convey a sense of inner turmoil, alienation, and the enduring ache of separation.

The opening stanza, "My heart has become as hard as a city street, / The horses trample upon it, it sings like iron," immediately establishes a metaphor of the heart as a city street — hard, unyielding, and constantly beaten upon. The imagery of horses trampling and the sound of iron suggests a feeling of being overwhelmed and worn down by relentless forces, possibly representing the ceaseless pain of loss or the unending passage of time.

The second stanza shifts the focus to a city park, a place typically associated with leisure and relaxation but here depicted as "drab" and worn out by "the feet of shameless lovers." The contrast between the lovers' vitality and the speaker's desolation is poignant, highlighting the speaker's sense of isolation and longing.

In the third stanza, the heart is "torn with the sound of raucous voices" and music from a hurdy-gurdy, a hand-cranked street instrument. The cacophony of the city and the discordant music become metaphors for the internal chaos and emotional turmoil the speaker is experiencing. The "arrows" shot into the heart by the hurdy-gurdy's tunes evoke the sharp pangs of memory or unrequited love.

The final stanza introduces a direct address to the "belovèd," who is absent and possibly unreachable. The speaker wonders whether the beloved is still alive and existing somewhere across the sea, or if they were only a dream. This questioning underscores the speaker's profound sense of loss and uncertainty, creating a sense of longing for something that may have never been real.

Throughout the poem, Aiken skillfully uses the discordant and harsh imagery of the city to mirror the turmoil in the speaker's heart. The urban landscape becomes a reflection of the speaker's emotional state — hard, drab, torn, and filled with conflicting noises and sensations.

In summary, "Discordants: 2" is a powerful exploration of emotional desolation and longing in the aftermath of loss or separation. Aiken's use of urban imagery to convey the internal state of the speaker is both striking and effective, painting a vivid picture of the heart's landscape altered by grief and longing. The poem resonates with the universal themes of love, loss, and the search for meaning in the face of absence.

Copyright (c) 2025 PoetryExplorer

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!

Other Poems of Interest...