Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"Contra Mortem: The Being as Memory" by Hayden Carruth is a poignant and vivid exploration of memory as a defense against mortality. Through a series of evocative images and moments, Carruth constructs a tapestry that weaves together the transient and the eternal, suggesting that memory serves as a bulwark against the erasure of existence brought about by death. The poem's title, "Contra Mortem," Latin for "against death," frames this meditation on memory as an act of resistance, an attempt to preserve what is fleeting in the face of the inexorable.

The poem opens with the image of "a carpet raveling on the loom," a metaphor that recurs at the conclusion, encapsulating the cyclical nature of life and the act of creation as a form of memory. This image of creation, both artistic and mundane, becomes a symbol of the human impulse to leave a mark, to weave one's story into the fabric of the world. The girl with a "widowspeak and misty legs," the rising moon, and the "black longwinging loon / bursting afire in the sunset" are all snapshots of existence, brief and beautiful, captured in the act of remembrance.

Each image and scene presented by Carruth serves as a fragment of memory, a flash of the past that has been preserved in the mind's eye. From the "torn sail / groveling in a wave" to the "helmet upturned in the black rain," the poem traverses a landscape of loss and longing, of moments both personal and collective. The mention of "motors / and machineguns / in the dawn" evokes the memory of war, a shared human experience of conflict and survival that imprints itself indelibly on the collective memory.

The poem then shifts to more intimate moments: "a kiss and candleflame," "a sonata / for clarinet," and "a bone cracking," juxtaposing the grandeur and horror of the external world with the profundity of personal experience. The image of "a woman / wearing a blue veil" and the reference to "kashan" and "the little darkeyed weaving girls" broaden the poem's scope to encompass global memories, suggesting that the tapestry of memory is woven from threads both near and far, familiar and foreign.

By returning to the image of the carpet on the loom at the end, Carruth closes the poetic circle, reinforcing the idea that life—and memory—is an ongoing process of creation and re-creation. In doing so, he asserts that memory, in its ability to capture and preserve moments of beauty, horror, love, and loss, serves as a counterpoint to death. It is through memory that the essence of being is sustained, and it is through the act of remembering that individuals and communities defy the finality of mortality.

"Contra Mortem: The Being as Memory" is a testament to the power of memory as a means of connecting to the past, understanding the present, and reaching toward the future. Through its lyrical exploration of the moments that define and defy our existence, the poem invites readers to consider how memory shapes their understanding of life and their resistance to the void of forgetfulness and death.

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