Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"Homecoming - Massachusetts" by John Ciardi is a reflective, melancholic poem that traverses the landscape of memory and history, encapsulating the essence of returning to a familiar yet irrevocably changed place. Through a journey that moves past scenes imbued with layers of cultural and personal history, the speaker confronts the inevitable passage of time and the transformation it brings to people, places, and memories. The poem is rich in imagery and allusion, drawing from diverse historical and mythological references to explore themes of loss, change, and the unknowable future.

The poem opens with a twilight scene in a park, described with mythical overtones as the "satyr's twilight," where "Greek children burn among the bushes," immediately establishing a tone of ancient mystery and youthful vitality. This mythical imagery seamlessly transitions into a journey past a "Roman wall where icons are," suggesting the presence of history and the remnants of past civilizations that layer the speaker's environment.

As the speaker strolls "across the Indian Burial," the landscape deepens into one of historical confluence—a "glacial till on a Mesozoic ledge"—evoking the deep time of geological and prehistoric pasts. This progression through layers of time and culture leads the speaker to the more personal and immediate memory of "Mrs. Quinan's hedge," a boundary marking both a physical and metaphorical entry point into the speaker's past.

The disappearance of the fruit and the trees from Mrs. Quinan's property, and her own death—marked by the vivid image of her "fishwife's tongue...throttled by a cancer, a cross, a stone"—serve as poignant symbols of the inevitable changes wrought by time. The specific mention of her death on a "darker night than this" juxtaposes personal loss against the backdrop of the poem's broader historical and mythological references, grounding the speaker's reflections in the tangible realities of life and death.

As the speaker turns onto the pavement, the realization that "we grow old / In any thought" captures the inescapable nature of aging and the accumulation of experience that shapes our perception of home and self. The speaker's life, waiting on the street, symbolizes both the continuity and transformation of identity over time, as past experiences and memories converge on the present moment.

The closing lines of the poem draw together the strands of "mineral, vegetable, fish, fowl, and flesh," suggesting the interconnectedness of all life forms and the layers of existence that have contributed to the speaker's identity. This identity is portrayed as a "legend" made up of various epochs and beings, from the "Saurian" and "savage" to the "satyr, Roman, clerk," culminating in the memory of "Mrs. Quinan's imp," whose death, like hers, leaves a "faint distaste, and then, no taste," on the changing landscape of the speaker's world.

"Homecoming - Massachusetts" concludes with a reflection on the unknowability of our beginnings and ends, a meditation on the complexity of life and the web of connections that bind us to our past, our environment, and each other. Ciardi's poem invites the reader to ponder the forces of change and continuity that shape our understanding of home, history, and humanity, capturing the bittersweet essence of returning to a place that has evolved beyond its remembered state.

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