Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Ron Padgett’s "Remembrance of Things Past" is a playful, surreal meditation on memory, familial relationships, and the fluid boundaries between perception and reality. The poem borrows its title from Marcel Proust’s monumental novel, but rather than exploring memory with Proust’s intricate introspection and nostalgia, Padgett approaches it with humor, absurdity, and a touch of irreverence. Through fragmented imagery, disjointed narrative, and subtle emotional undercurrents, Padgett crafts a scene that oscillates between the mundane and the bizarre, inviting readers to reflect on the strange ways we recall and reconstruct personal history.

The poem opens with a peculiar statement: "I'm afraid father's hair is slightly cancelled / In three general areas: / First in the town, Then the in-between, / And finally the second town." The phrase "father's hair is slightly cancelled" immediately signals the poem’s surreal tone. The word cancelled—typically associated with voiding or negating something—feels absurd when applied to hair, suggesting perhaps balding, but in a way that transforms a common physical change into something more abstract and impersonal. The division of this cancellation into three general areas—the town, the in-between, and the second town—evokes a geographical or metaphorical journey, blurring the lines between physical space and the father’s presence or absence.

Padgett continues to complicate the father’s presence: "For it is difficult and not even necessary to decide / Where he is / For he sits enthroned in himself / Before a flowery screen / Reading the completely white newspaper." The father is both elusive and self-contained, "enthroned in himself," suggesting a figure detached from his surroundings or from others. The flowery screen adds a decorative, almost theatrical backdrop, as if the father exists on a stage set for contemplation or withdrawal. The image of him reading a "completely white newspaper" further emphasizes this detachment. A white newspaper implies the absence of news, information, or engagement with the outside world, turning the act of reading into a purely performative or symbolic gesture.

The focus then shifts to the son, whose activities are both playful and symbolic: "Son is playing with a watering can, A white disc, a sabre and probably earlier / A blue bag." The assortment of objects—a watering can, a disc, a sabre, and a blue bag—feels random yet charged with potential meaning. The sabre introduces a sense of danger or disruption, contrasting with the more benign objects like the watering can and the disc, which later becomes a tambourine. The father’s response to the son’s play is simultaneously permissive and defensive: "Yes, Son, you may play with the sabre / Only please do not disturb me with it in any way, / Or disturb me in any other way either." This line highlights the father’s desire for control and peace, but it also foreshadows inevitable disruption.

As the father contemplates whether he wishes to read or sleep—"I wish to read, / To read this newspaper, Or... do I wish to sleep?"—he succumbs to sleep "faster than any human ever," an exaggeration that underscores both his detachment and the surreal nature of the narrative. This moment of vulnerability sets the stage for the son’s rebellion or mischief: "I may use my left hand to strike this match, / Apply it to and set fire to the newspaper." The son’s act of setting the newspaper on fire represents more than childish mischief—it symbolizes a rupture in the father’s controlled, detached world, forcing him to confront the chaos introduced by his child.

The father’s reaction is a mixture of anger and incredulity: "Ah! you little son of a bitch, / Down before me as you are on one knee, Kneeling, what have you done?" The sudden, harsh language breaks the formal, surreal tone of the earlier lines, injecting raw emotion into the scene. The father’s outburst reveals the fragility of his composure, as the son’s act has not only disturbed his sleep but violated the fragile barrier he has constructed between himself and the world. His frustration is further articulated: "You've set fire to my newspaper, / Woke me up, bothered me in a vicious manner / And generally done something you shouldn't have." The repetition of grievances emphasizes the father’s sense of betrayal and disruption.

Yet, as quickly as the anger flares, it dissipates into a moment of possible forgiveness: "Must I open my arms and tilt my head forgivingly / When you say you will never do it again?" This rhetorical question highlights the complexity of the father-son dynamic. The father recognizes the performative nature of both his forgiveness and the son’s promise of better behavior. The tension between authority and affection, discipline and forgiveness, is palpable, reflecting a universal struggle in parental relationships.

The poem concludes with a reflection on the aftermath of this disruption: "You see out of the corner of your eye / That my newspaper has stopped burning / And lies where I dropped it, half-covering the blue bag / Near the tambourine, / Far from the cancellation which has become / In the manner of a painting a work of art." The imagery here blends the domestic with the artistic, transforming the scene of minor chaos into something aesthetically significant. The blue bag and the tambourine—previously simple objects of play—now coexist with the remnants of the burnt newspaper, suggesting that the intersection of order and disruption, control and spontaneity, has created something new and meaningful. The phrase "the cancellation which has become / In the manner of a painting a work of art" reinforces this idea, implying that even the disruptions and imperfections of life contribute to its beauty and significance.

In "Remembrance of Things Past," Padgett blends surrealism, humor, and emotional complexity to explore the dynamics of memory and familial relationships. The poem’s fragmented narrative and shifting tones reflect the unpredictable, often contradictory nature of memory itself, where moments of tenderness and tension coexist, and where the mundane can suddenly become profound. By invoking Proust’s title, Padgett playfully engages with the idea of remembrance, not as a linear, coherent process, but as a series of disjointed, vivid impressions that together form the messy, beautiful tapestry of human experience.

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