Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Derek Walcott's "Midsummer: 20. Watteau" is a reflection on the ephemeral nature of paradise, exploring themes of decay, illusion, and the inescapable tension between beauty and impermanence. The poem’s central focus is the French Rococo painter Jean-Antoine Watteau, known for his idyllic and dreamlike depictions of pleasure, fantasy, and aristocratic life. However, Walcott’s depiction of Watteau’s world is tinged with a darker, more melancholic understanding of paradise, where beauty fades and illusions dissolve into a feverish delirium.

The poem opens with a richly atmospheric image of nature: "The amber spray of trees feather-brushed with the dusk." The word "amber" suggests a golden, warm glow that is soft and fleeting, as the trees are gently touched by the fading light of dusk. This delicate image, however, is immediately juxtaposed with images of ruin: "the ruined cavity of some spectral château, the groin / of a leering satyr eaten with ivy." The château, a symbol of grandeur and elegance, is now in decay, a "spectral" ghost of its former self. Similarly, the satyr, a figure associated with revelry and sensuality, is consumed by nature, its leering face overtaken by ivy. This image of decay underscores the poem’s central theme: that beauty and paradise are inevitably subject to time and destruction.

Walcott introduces the idea of an "unreapable, alchemical harvest" in the distance, suggesting a paradise that can never be fully attained or grasped. The word "unreapable" implies that the fruits of this paradise are always just out of reach, while "alchemical" suggests a mystical transformation, a process of turning base elements into gold. This harvest is not of the material world but exists in a more mystical, perhaps illusory, realm. This sense of unattainability is reinforced by the phrase "the hollow at the heart of all embarkations," implying that at the center of every journey lies emptiness or a void.

The poem’s exploration of impermanence is further developed in the lines: "Nothing stays green / in that prodigious urging towards twilight." Here, Walcott reflects on the inevitable decline of nature and beauty, as everything is drawn inexorably toward the darkness of twilight. The phrase "prodigious urging" suggests a powerful, unstoppable force that drives all things toward decay and dissolution. In this context, Watteau’s paintings, often filled with lush greenery and scenes of eternal youth and joy, are revealed to be illusions, momentary escapes from the relentless passage of time.

The pilgrims in Watteau’s paintings, traditionally seen as figures of joy and festivity, are reimagined here as being "in fever" from "the tremulous strokes of malaria's laureate." This line evokes a sense of delirium and sickness, contrasting sharply with the idyllic vision of paradise that Watteau often depicted. The "tremulous strokes" could refer both to the delicate, trembling brushstrokes of Watteau’s paintings and to the feverish, unsteady state of the pilgrims. Malaria, a tropical disease, symbolizes the contamination or corruption of paradise, suggesting that even in the most beautiful and serene landscapes, there is always an underlying sickness or decay.

Walcott then asks, "So where is Cythera?" Cythera, the mythological birthplace of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, was a frequent subject in Watteau’s work. In Watteau’s paintings, Cythera represents an idealized paradise, a place of eternal beauty and love. However, Walcott portrays it as "far and feverish," an illusion that "dilates on the horizon of his near-delirium." This image of Cythera as distant and fevered reflects the central tension in the poem: that paradise is both alluring and unattainable, a product of delirium rather than reality.

The line "it can break like the spidery rigging / of his ribboned barquentines" suggests that Cythera, like the ships in Watteau’s paintings, is fragile and insubstantial, prone to falling apart. The reference to "ribboned barquentines" conjures images of delicate, decorated ships that are more ornamental than functional, further emphasizing the illusory nature of paradise. Walcott’s assertion that Cythera is "as much nowhere / as these broad-leafed islands" connects the mythical island to the real, physical islands of the Caribbean, suggesting that the idea of paradise is as elusive in the real world as it is in art.

The poem's reference to "the disease / of elephantine vegetation in Baudelaire" and "the tropic bug in the Paris fog" links the decaying, feverish vision of paradise to Charles Baudelaire’s work, particularly his fascination with the interplay between beauty and decay. Baudelaire’s portrayal of the tropics as both lush and suffocating parallels Walcott’s depiction of paradise as both seductive and corrupted. The "tropic bug" infecting the "Paris fog" suggests that even in the most urban and civilized environments, the chaos and decay of the natural world are present, infiltrating the fantasy of paradise.

Walcott concludes the poem with a stark reflection on the nature of paradise: "Paradise is life repeated spectrally, / an empty chair echoing the emptiness." This chilling image suggests that paradise, far from being a place of eternal beauty and happiness, is merely a repetition of life’s illusions and emptiness. The "empty chair" symbolizes absence and loss, reinforcing the idea that paradise is an illusion, a reflection of the emptiness that underlies all human endeavors.

In "Midsummer: 20. Watteau," Walcott dismantles the romanticized visions of paradise that have been perpetuated by artists like Watteau. Through rich imagery of decay, sickness, and unattainability, the poem explores the fleeting nature of beauty and the illusion of paradise. Ultimately, Walcott suggests that paradise, whether in art or in life, is an empty promise, a spectral echo of what we wish it to be, but never can truly attain.

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