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Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained | |||
"December 24th, Paris - Notre Dame" by Sandra Cisneros is a hauntingly beautiful poem that captures a moment of introspection and melancholy amidst the backdrop of Paris and the Seine River. Through vivid imagery and evocative language, Cisneros explores themes of transience, loss, and the cyclical nature of life and time. The poem opens with a serene, almost idyllic description of the Seine flowing "Merrily, merrily." This repetition, along with the mention of the river and rain, emphasizes the continuous and unending movement of water, symbolizing the flow of life itself. The image of "A blue umbrella fading into fog" and "A child into his mother's arms" further highlights the theme of transience, suggesting how moments and lives blend into the larger tapestry of existence. The reference to "Buttresses leaping delirious" brings the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral into focus, connecting the natural flow of the Seine with the man-made marvel, suggesting a dance between the temporal world and the lasting impressions of human creation. The "Wind through the vein of trees" and "The rain into the river" continue this meditation on the natural world, reinforcing the sense of ongoing movement and change. The poem then takes a darker turn with the hypothetical discovery of a body in the Seine, described as "unraveled like a poem, dissolved like wafer." This imagery is powerful and poignant, likening the dissolution of the body to the sacramental wafer and the unraveled poem, suggesting themes of sacrality, mystery, and the ultimate dissolution of life. The mention of "Ophelia Found" invokes the tragic Shakespearean character, reinforcing the motif of lost women and the blending of literary and real-life tragedies. The closing lines of the poem reflect on the passage of time—"A year ends / merrily. Merrily another one begins"—with a bittersweet acknowledgment of the cycle of endings and beginnings. The speaker's decision to "go out into the street once more" despite the "wrists so full of living" and "the heart begging once again" speaks to the resilience of the human spirit, the willingness to face life anew despite the pain and loss that come with it. "December 24th, Paris - Notre Dame" is a profound meditation on the beauty and sorrow of existence, the interplay between the eternal and the ephemeral, and the human capacity to endure and begin again. Cisneros's poem invites readers to reflect on their own experiences of loss, renewal, and the inexorable flow of time, all set against the timeless backdrop of Paris and the ever-moving Seine.
| Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...STARS WHICH SEE, STARS WHICH DO NOT SEE by MARVIN BELL A PARIS BLACKBIRD by LAURE-ANNE BOSSELAAR SEURAT'S SUNDAY AFTERNOON ALONG THE SEINE by DELMORE SCHWARTZ IN ANDELYS: ON THE BANK OF THE SEINE: 5 by PAUL FORT IN ANDELYS: PRAYER TO THE GREAT NORMAN WATER-SPRITES by PAUL FORT PONT MIRABEAU by GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE BY THE SEINE, A PROMISE by JIM BARNES DECEMBER 24TH, PARIS - NOTRE DAME by SANDRA CISNEROS MEMORY OF THE SEINE by KWON ILSONG PARIS PLAN IN HAND by CLARENCE MAJOR |
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