Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In James Dickey's poem "The Jewel," the speaker meditates on solitude, the weight of existence, and the existential intersection of life and duty. The poem is set against a backdrop of nighttime isolation, magnified through the imagery of a tent, which envelops the speaker "like grass," a natural yet encroaching presence. This setting—an aircraft waiting in the darkness—serves as a physical and metaphorical threshold between the known and the unknown, between safety and the vast expanse of the night sky.

The recurring motif of the tent and its transformation into different elements of the speaker's surroundings symbolizes a blurring of reality and perception. The coffee urn turning green under the tent’s artificial light, and the coffee’s surface mirroring a "blind, steeled, brimming smile," suggest a distortion of normalcy, as mundane objects take on deeper, more introspective qualities in the solitude of the night. The smile reflected in the coffee is both a literal reflection and a metaphor for the speaker's forced cheerfulness or perhaps the grim acceptance of his situation.

As the poem progresses, the speaker's identity seems to split, viewing himself "doubled strangely in time," suggesting a disconnection from the present and a broader existential split. The use of the flashlight as a "third, weak, drifting leg" further emphasizes his fragility and the precariousness of his state, both physically and mentally.

The description of preparing to enter the cockpit—packing oneself into the tight space, wheels "clod-hopping" on the ground, the moon "held still" in the tail-booms—conveys a ritualistic preparation for a flight. This act is both isolating and introspective, highlighting the solitude that comes with the responsibility of piloting an aircraft in the dead of night. The imagery of the cockpit as a vow of silence reflects the solemnity and perhaps the resignation accompanying the pilot's duties.

The sudden appearance of the cabin across from him, with its "faceted lights" snapping on, introduces a contrast between the speaker's darkness and the light he observes. This light is described as a "strong, poor diamond," an image rich in contradiction. It is both valuable and deficient, suggesting that the clarity or truth the light might symbolize is compromised or incomplete.

The figure inside this light, another pilot or perhaps a reflection of the speaker himself, wears a helmet and a mask, depersonalized and transformed into a component of his machinery. This figure is engaged in "his amazing procedure," a phrase that ambiguously blends routine and marvel, further emphasizing the surreal and otherworldly nature of the speaker’s environment and experiences.

Dickey concludes the poem with a reflection on the fear of mortality and the existential dread that grows over time. The speaker questions the point of his waiting, the looming threat of death in his solitary confrontations with the night, and the haunting allure of the aircraft's engines' "matched, priceless glow." This ending leaves the reader contemplating the nature of human courage and vulnerability, the complex dance between life's mundane realities and its profound, often isolating challenges.

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