Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Ann Lauterbach’s “Closing Hours” is a richly layered and enigmatic poem, suffused with a sense of temporal dislocation, fragmented memory, and the haunting interplay of the real and the imagined. Through dense imagery and subtle allusions, Lauterbach creates a meditation on transience, perception, and the act of bearing witness to the passage of time. The poem, while abstract, invites reflection on the fragility of human experience and the enduring pull of art and myth.

The opening line, "This trace, if it exists, is alms for delusion," establishes the tone of uncertainty that permeates the poem. The "trace" suggests a fleeting or insubstantial remnant, a mark that may or may not hold meaning. By likening it to "alms for delusion," Lauterbach underscores the tenuous nature of human attempts to grasp permanence or truth. This existential doubt threads through the poem, as the speaker navigates the boundaries between reality, memory, and imagination.

The image of "an arch uncurls from the floor / scented with the scent of a tapestry, housed here" evokes a space both physical and symbolic. The arch, an architectural feature often associated with passage or transition, seems to arise organically, suggesting a fluid relationship between form and function. The tapestry, "housed here," introduces the idea of art as a repository for memory and meaning. Its "scent" ties it to sensory experience, grounding the abstract reflections in a tangible, lived reality.

The speaker’s struggle to "recall the hour but not its passage" highlights the fragility of human perception and memory. Time, elusive and intangible, resists capture except through the artificial structures of dream and sleep. The introduction of the "fat bellhop" who "smiles, shows me to the tower / where I can watch the departure" evokes a surreal, dreamlike scenario. The tower, a place of observation and distance, offers a vantage point from which the speaker can witness time’s progression. Yet, the sense of disconnection lingers, as the departure remains undefined, an abstract concept rather than a concrete event.

The shift to "some days settle so that nothing / crosses the horizon" introduces a stillness that contrasts with the earlier focus on movement and passage. The absence of a star to "needle the air" emphasizes this stasis, suggesting a world bereft of signs or guidance. This stillness is mirrored in the setting: "the outskirts of a forest hemmed in by wheat." The natural imagery is both expansive and confining, with the "plump trees" obscuring the "image" and its "symmetry" shattered, "shot up and blown across the ground like feathers." This imagery conveys a sense of fragmentation and dispersal, as though the coherence of the world has been irreparably disrupted.

The invocation of mythic and artistic symbols—"The unicorn, the grail, blue and red wings / of kneeling musicians"—extends the poem’s exploration of time and memory into the realm of the eternal. These symbols, "embroidered elsewhere," suggest the enduring power of art and myth to preserve what is otherwise ephemeral. Yet, their displacement ("elsewhere") reinforces the sense of absence and loss that pervades the poem. The acts of perseverance, hope, and pity, personified as praying for success, highlight the human endeavor to find meaning in the face of impermanence.

The question "How fast is this camera? Can it record a trace?" returns to the theme of capturing the fleeting. The camera, a modern instrument of preservation, is juxtaposed against the centuries-old imagery of horses and tapestries. The horses, "strain[ing] against centuries," evoke the tension between the eternal and the temporal, the enduring and the transient. Each horse is allotted "dust kicked up, smoke, plumage," a vivid encapsulation of movement, destruction, and beauty. These details underscore the paradox of time: it erases even as it preserves.

The final lines—"To each is allotted: dust kicked up, smoke, plumage"—leave the reader with a powerful image of fragmentation and resilience. The "dust" and "smoke" suggest decay and impermanence, while "plumage" evokes beauty and vitality. This duality captures the essence of Closing Hours, a poem that confronts the inevitability of time’s passage while celebrating the fragments that endure.

Through its intricate imagery and meditative tone, “Closing Hours” invites readers to grapple with the complexities of existence, memory, and art. Lauterbach’s interplay of myth, nature, and modernity creates a layered exploration of how we experience and preserve time. The poem offers no definitive answers, instead leaving us with a profound sense of the ephemeral and the enduring, the elusive traces that define our engagement with the world.

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