Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In "Italian Eclogues: 2", Derek Walcott continues his exploration of memory, loss, and the enduring power of place. Set against the backdrop of Venice, the poem intertwines personal reflection with classical and artistic imagery, much like its predecessor. Walcott invokes the city's rich historical and cultural significance to reflect on the relationship between the living and the dead, the enduring presence of those lost, and the way art serves as a bridge between the past and the present.

The poem opens with a striking image of a pigeon’s wings fluttering outside a window, symbolizing a "fresh soul discarding the exhausted heart." This suggests a moment of transformation or release, possibly referencing the death of a loved one and the transition of the soul. The sound of the bells ringing in the "cinquecento" (a reference to the Italian Renaissance period) and the movement of vaporettos (Venetian water buses) evoke the vibrancy and historical depth of Venice. These sensory details create a vivid picture of the city, grounding the poem in a specific time and place.

Walcott then introduces the figure of "the traveller’s shadow," a symbolic representation of someone left behind as life moves forward. The traveller watches the water churned by the ferry, comparing it to a "comb through blonde hair" or "book covers enclosing the foam of their final page." These similes reflect both beauty and finality—the passage of the ferry through water, like a life through time, leaves traces that are quickly erased. This image of erasure becomes more intense with the reference to "whiteness that blinds me with its flakes," which may symbolize snow, death, or a blank page, suggesting the difficulty of capturing memory or meaning.

The speaker then directly addresses Joseph, presumably Joseph Brodsky, the Russian poet who spent much of his later life in Venice and whom Walcott admired. Walcott laments that Joseph "cannot read" this, as he has passed away, making the poem an elegy. The line "The windows of a book spine open / on a courtyard" highlights how books and the act of writing allow the past to be revisited, much like a window opening onto a familiar scene. The courtyard, enclosed by cupolas, represents Venice itself, with its "coined water" suggesting both the richness of the city’s history and the reflective nature of memory.

The poem’s mention of Sunday and the "bells of the campaniles’ deranged tolling" adds a layer of spiritual and liturgical resonance, as the bells seem to toll for Joseph, commemorating his passing. The image of the "lion whose iron paw keeps our orb from rolling" refers to the symbol of Venice, the lion of St. Mark, and speaks to the city’s role as a protector or stabilizing force. Walcott also reflects on Joseph's appreciation for Venice, where the city’s artistic beauty—its "craft with the necks of violins" and "girls with the necks of gondolas"—was his "province," or domain. This suggests that Joseph found a kind of solace or spiritual redemption in the city’s aesthetic and cultural richness.

In the final stanza, Walcott reflects on his own relationship to memory and loss. He admits to drifting toward the Biography section in bookstores, "gliding over names with a pigeon’s opening claws." The pigeons, ubiquitous in Venice, serve as a metaphor for both the search for connection and the inevitability of loss. The "cupolas" once again "enclose their parentheses over the sea," suggesting the way Venice, and by extension memory, wraps itself around those who have passed.

The closing lines are particularly poignant: "Off the ferry, your shade turns the corners / of a book, and stands at the end of perspective, waiting for me." Here, the "shade" of Joseph, his ghost or memory, lingers in Venice, waiting at the end of a long perspective. The image of the ghost waiting at the end of a perspective recalls the vanishing point in art, where lines converge and disappear. It is a fitting metaphor for death and the way memories recede into the distance but remain ever-present in the landscape of the mind.

In "Italian Eclogues: 2", Walcott masterfully blends the personal with the universal, using Venice as both a literal and metaphorical space in which to explore themes of memory, loss, and artistic legacy. The poem serves as a tribute to Joseph Brodsky and a meditation on the ways in which the dead continue to influence the living through art, memory, and place. The city of Venice, with its rich history and timeless beauty, becomes a symbol of the persistence of art and the enduring presence of those we have lost.

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