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Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained | |||
Richard Wilbur’s "Five Women Bathing in Moonlight" is a lyrical and evocative poem that captures a moment of transformative beauty and mystery. Through its fluid imagery and rich language, the poem explores themes of natural harmony, the interplay between perception and reality, and the transcendent power of moonlight to dissolve boundaries between the human and the elemental. Wilbur’s attention to detail and his use of rhythmic, flowing language create a dreamlike tableau in which the women’s movements merge seamlessly with the natural world. The poem begins with an assertion about the nature of night: "When night believes itself alone / It is most natural, conceals / No artifice." These lines set the stage for the scene by personifying night as a self-aware entity, one that is most authentic when unobserved. This idea of the night’s naturalness, unguarded and unadorned, creates a sense of intimacy and truth. The moon, described as "open," becomes a symbol of this unfiltered authenticity, its light free to shape the world with "webs in sky and water." Wilbur’s choice of the word "wields" suggests both precision and power, as the moon’s light exerts subtle control over the scene, shaping the waves with its influence. The landscape is rendered in terms of reflection and semblance: "This vision yields / To one sole theme of semblance, land / Leasing each wave the palest peals / Of bright apparent notes of sand." The use of "semblance" emphasizes the illusory and transient nature of what is seen, as the land lends its colors and textures to the water in a fleeting interplay. The repetition of soft, luminous imagery—"pale," "bright," "apparent"—creates an ethereal atmosphere, blurring the distinctions between land, water, and light. The poem’s focus shifts to the women themselves: "The bathers whitely come and stand. / Water diffuses them, their hair / Like seaweed slurs the shoulders." Here, the women are depicted as both present and elusive, their forms softened and transformed by the water and moonlight. The description of their hair as "like seaweed" reinforces their integration into the natural world, suggesting that they, too, are subject to the elemental forces at play. Their voices, "plucked of words," further highlight their immersion in this liminal state, where human language and individuality are subsumed by the larger harmony of the scene. The bathers’ movements deepen their connection to the natural and the sublime: "Now wading where / The moon?s misprisions salve them in- / To silver, they are unaware / How lost they are when they begin." The phrase "moon’s misprisions" suggests a distortion or misinterpretation, as the moonlight alters the women’s appearances, casting them in "silver." This transformation is both literal and metaphorical, as the women become otherworldly and lose their distinct identities. The use of "salve" evokes healing and soothing, suggesting that this loss of individuality is a form of liberation. The women’s unawareness of their "loss" underscores the idea that they have entered a state of surrender to the natural world. The poem culminates in a depiction of the bathers’ movements as a dance: "Gestures of blithe obedience, / As five Danilovas within / The soft compulsions of their dance." The comparison to "Danilovas" (likely a reference to ballerina Maria Danilova) situates the bathers’ actions within the realm of art and grace, suggesting that their movements, though unintentional, possess the elegance of a choreographed performance. The phrase "soft compulsions" conveys both the gentle inevitability of their actions and the way they are guided by the forces of moonlight and water. The dance becomes a metaphor for their harmonious integration into the rhythms of the natural world. Structurally, the poem’s tight quatrains and steady rhythm reflect the fluidity and balance of the scene it describes. Wilbur’s use of enjambment and flowing phrasing mirrors the movement of water and the gradual blending of elements, creating a seamless, hypnotic quality. The language is carefully chosen to evoke both the physical and the transcendent, blending sensory detail with a sense of mystery. "Five Women Bathing in Moonlight" is ultimately a meditation on the dissolution of boundaries—between land and water, human and natural, real and imagined. Through its lush imagery and rhythmic elegance, the poem captures a moment of profound transformation, in which the bathers are subsumed into the elemental forces around them, becoming part of a larger, timeless harmony. Wilbur invites readers to experience this fleeting, luminous moment, celebrating the beauty and mystery of surrendering to the natural world.
| Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...OXOTA: A SHORT RUSSIAN NOVEL: CHAPTER 7 by LYN HEJINIAN ARISTOTLE TO PHYLLIS by JOHN HOLLANDER A WOMAN'S DELUSION by SUSAN HOWE JULIA TUTWILER STATE PRISON FOR WOMEN by ANDREW HUDGINS THE WOMEN ON CYTHAERON by ROBINSON JEFFERS TOMORROW by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD LADIES FOR DINNER, SAIPAN by KENNETH KOCH GOODBYE TO TOLERANCE by DENISE LEVERTOV |
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