Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

David Lehman’s "To the Author of ?Glare?" is a meditation on the nature of storytelling, memory, and poetic legacy, written as an address to A. R. Ammons, whose book Glare serves as a reference point. The poem unfolds in a fluid, associative style, reflecting on how narratives fragment and proliferate, eventually losing their original form. Lehman’s lines meander in a way that mirrors the ephemeral nature of stories and the inevitable distance between the creator and the work over time.

The poem begins by acknowledging a transformation: "There comes a time when the story turns into twenty / different stories," suggesting that narratives, once told, take on lives of their own. Lehman likens this to an "academy of shadows"—perhaps alluding to Plato’s allegory of the cave—where the original form of a story becomes distorted, existing only in the minds of those who reinterpret it. The "solitary boy in a thriving / metropolis" might represent the poet himself, someone who remains isolated in his contemplation while living in a bustling world that has moved on, forgotten the "original story."

For Lehman, forgetting is not necessarily a failure but "a sign of its great success." The paradox here is that the highest form of recognition is erasure—only what has been known can be forgotten. This suggests that a writer’s work, once absorbed into collective consciousness, no longer needs explicit acknowledgment. It also speaks to the transitory nature of influence: one may be shaped by an author’s work without consciously remembering it.

The poem shifts from this abstract meditation to a more intimate reflection on lineage: "my footprints in the snow leading to you, who would be my father / if this were a dream." The imagery of footprints in the snow evokes both impermanence and connection, as if Ammons? poetic legacy has guided Lehman’s own journey, however fleetingly. The conditional phrasing ("if this were a dream") suggests an imagined kinship between poets, as if Lehman sees himself as a literary heir to Ammons but recognizes that such relationships are inherently nebulous.

The concluding lines reinforce the tension between presence and disappearance: "but the hours remain ours, though they / were gone almost as soon as they arrived, hat and coat in hand." This closing image of someone leaving—a transient guest, perhaps the poet himself—emphasizes the fleeting nature of both time and creative influence. It also echoes the poem’s meditation on memory: moments, like stories and poetic legacies, exist vividly before dissolving into the past.

Structurally, the poem’s long, enjambed lines contribute to its sense of fluidity and thought-stream, allowing ideas to flow into one another without abrupt breaks. This mimics the way influence and memory operate: interconnected, intangible, and constantly shifting.

Ultimately, "To the Author of ?Glare?" is a poetic homage that simultaneously honors and questions the nature of literary inheritance. It acknowledges Ammons’ presence while admitting that all authors, even the most influential, eventually fade into the margins of memory. In doing so, Lehman crafts a meditation on the inevitable cycle of artistic recognition, disappearance, and rediscovery.

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