Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"Ideal Mistress" by Robert Desnos unfolds as a surreal and labyrinthine exploration of love, desire, and the elusive nature of connection. Through vivid, dreamlike imagery and playful manipulation of language, Desnos crafts a narrative that defies conventional understanding, instead inviting the reader into a space where logic is supplanted by the associative flow of consciousness. This poem, with its shifting landscapes and transformation of the mundane into the extraordinary, captures the essence of surrealism’s attempt to reveal the hidden emotional and psychological truths that lie beneath the surface of reality.

The poem begins with an anecdote that immediately establishes its surreal nature: the speaker is delayed because of the need to brush the teeth of a "pretty animal" they are taming—a chameleon that smokes cigarettes. This opening serves not just as an absurdity but as a metaphor for the intricate and often bizarre rituals that underpin human relationships, suggesting that love and desire compel us to engage in behaviors as unpredictable and changeable as a chameleon’s colors.

The encounter with the "ideal mistress" on the stairs introduces a dialogue that is rich in color symbolism and abstract expression. Her statement, "I'm mauving," contrasted with the speaker's declaration of "I myself crystal at full sky," uses color as a means of conveying emotional states and identities, presenting interaction as a kaleidoscope of shifting perceptions and feelings. The language here transcends literal interpretation, embodying the surrealists' fascination with the ability of words to evoke rather than describe.

As the poem progresses, the imagery becomes increasingly dense and allusive. The staircase transforms into a library, suggesting a passage through knowledge or memory, while the crowds become "more abyss than the sun only clocks," a line that evokes the depths of human consciousness and the relentless passage of time. This scene captures the disorienting experience of navigating one's own psyche, a journey that is both inward and eternal.

The narrative then shifts to a scene of judgment and execution, where a dancer is condemned to die "while doing a dance step with her gems sacrificed to the heat of her body." This image, with its conflation of beauty, violence, and sacrifice, serves as a powerful metaphor for the destructive aspects of passion and the ways in which love and desire can lead to both creation and annihilation.

The closing lines, with their references to a "black square" mirror, clouds that "forgetmenot," and mills in "the ever-present eternity," further deepen the poem's exploration of themes of reflection, memory, and the cyclical nature of existence. The mirror suggests self-examination and the distortion of perception, while the invocation of forget-me-nots amidst clouds points to the fleeting nature of memory and the desire for permanence in a transient world.

"Ideal Mistress" is a quintessentially surreal work, a poem that delights in the unexpected and revels in the juxtaposition of disparate images and ideas. Desnos's use of surreal imagery, unconventional syntax, and a fluid, associative logic invites readers to relinquish their hold on the familiar and embrace a realm where the boundaries of self and other, reality and dream, are blurred. Through this poem, Desnos challenges conventional notions of love and desire, presenting them as forces that are as mysterious and mutable as the chameleon with which the poem begins.

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