Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Ann Lauterbach?s "Hum" is a haunting meditation on time, loss, and the ephemeral nature of existence. With its minimalist repetition, shifting tone, and a chorus-like refrain—"The days are beautiful"—the poem juxtaposes moments of profound beauty with the weight of grief and destruction. Written in a fragmented style, the poem captures the dissonance between the relentless passage of time and the collective sorrow of a world shaped by tragedy and impermanence.

The repeated affirmation, "The days are beautiful," serves as both a declaration and a lament. It highlights the duality of human experience, where beauty persists even in the face of overwhelming loss. The opening line immediately situates the reader in a state of awe, yet its repetition throughout the poem begins to feel more insistent, as if the speaker is trying to convince themselves of its truth. This refrain underscores the tension between external reality and internal turmoil, a tension that permeates the poem.

The speaker?s voice oscillates between clarity and disorientation: "I know what days are. / The other is weather. / I know what weather is. / The days are beautiful." These declarative statements suggest an attempt to assert control over the uncontrollable, to define and categorize experience in the face of its inherent chaos. Weather, often symbolic of change and unpredictability, becomes a metaphor for the uncontrollable forces that shape human lives. By contrasting "days" and "weather," Lauterbach draws attention to the interplay of stability and flux, permanence and ephemerality.

The theme of grief emerges powerfully in lines such as "Someone is weeping. / I weep for the incidental." The incidental—those seemingly minor, fleeting moments—becomes a source of sorrow, underscoring the fragility of existence. As the poem progresses, the speaker broadens this grief: "Everyone will weep. / Tomorrow was yesterday." This blending of temporal boundaries—where tomorrow collapses into yesterday—reflects a world unmoored, where linear time no longer provides solace or meaning. The repetition of "Everyone is incidental. / Everyone weeps" universalizes the experience of loss, connecting individual sorrow to a collective mourning.

The imagery of ashes, rain, and dust reinforces the poem’s elegiac tone. "The rain is ashes. / The days are beautiful." The pairing of destruction (ashes) with the refrain of beauty creates a jarring contrast, reminding the reader that beauty and devastation often coexist. The "rain" that "falls down" becomes a literal and metaphorical cleansing, carrying both renewal and remnants of destruction. Similarly, "The sky is dust. / The weather is yesterday" evokes a landscape marked by decay, where the physical and temporal merge into an indistinct haze.

Lauterbach’s references to towers and ashes suggest an allusion to the September 11 attacks, though the poem resists being tied to a singular historical moment. Lines such as "The towers are yesterday. / The towers are incidental" convey the weight of collective memory while emphasizing the transience of even monumental structures. The question, "What are these ashes?" invites reflection on the remnants of catastrophe—both literal and emotional—and their lingering presence in the world.

The poem’s latter section shifts from abstract meditations to a catalog of objects and places: "Here is the hate / That does not travel. / Here is the robe / That smells of the night." These lines ground the poem in the physical world, yet the items listed carry symbolic resonance. Hate becomes localized, trapped and static, while the "robe" evokes intimacy and concealment. The "bridge / Over the water" suggests connection and continuity, while "the place / Where the sun came up" offers a glimmer of renewal. These images, both concrete and evocative, capture the interplay of destruction and resilience that defines human experience.

The closing lines return to ashes, circling back to the themes of loss and transience: "Here are the ashes. / The days are beautiful." The juxtaposition of ashes and beauty encapsulates the poem’s central paradox. Even in the aftermath of devastation, beauty endures, but it is a beauty tinged with the weight of memory and grief. The repetition of the refrain in the final line reaffirms the speaker’s insistence on finding or affirming beauty, even in the face of devastation.

"Hum" is a profoundly reflective poem that grapples with the fragility of life, the persistence of beauty, and the inevitability of loss. Lauterbach’s use of repetition, fragmented syntax, and evocative imagery mirrors the disjointed nature of grief and the fragmented ways we process memory and time. By interweaving the personal and the universal, the poem invites readers to confront their own relationship to beauty, loss, and the ephemeral moments that define our lives. It is a quiet yet resonant elegy, a reminder that even in the ashes of destruction, the hum of life and beauty continues.

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