Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"Counterparts" by Stephen Dobyns is a profound and unsettling exploration of the remnants of conflict and the pervasive sense of dislocation that follows. The poem weaves a tapestry of images that evoke the aftermath of war, the ephemeral nature of identity, and the inexorable movement towards decay and dissolution. Through vivid, often stark language, Dobyns captures the fragmented reality of a world marked by violence and the struggle for meaning amidst the ruins.

The absence of the sky and the repetitive echoes of birds migrating northward introduce the poem with a sense of loss and disorientation. This imagery sets the stage for a meditation on presence and absence, visibility and obscurity, as the speaker navigates a landscape both literal and metaphorical, where the boundaries between self and other, past and present, life and death become blurred.

The phrase "your face breeding like fear" suggests the haunting, proliferating presence of trauma, its ability to replicate and invade spaces of supposed safety and normalcy. The juxtaposition of the domestic and the martial—the office and ranch house against the backdrop of a war photograph—underscores the tension between the civilian and soldier identities, between the violence of the battlefield and the veneer of suburban tranquility.

The "look of faint surprise" as one confronts the world and its eventual end highlights the universal human denial of mortality, the shock that accompanies the realization of one's own vulnerability. This confrontation with death, depicted as an act of lying down to be counted among the fallen, evokes the ritualistic aspects of memorialization and the attempt to impose order and significance on the chaos of loss.

Dobyns's use of the diamond as a metaphor for the heart, surrounded by stones and logs, invokes the burial rites and the symbolic attempts to safeguard and sanctify the memory of the deceased. However, the casual reference to the "two car family" and the subsequent misidentification of the site as a funeral reveals the societal detachment and misunderstanding that can accompany the rituals of mourning and remembrance.

The poem's progression towards a landscape "accustomed to war," where the speaker wields a bone as a weapon, underscores the primordial and enduring nature of conflict and the human inclination towards violence. The hissing ground and pine boughs, the rumors of summer, and the rejection of certain seasons as "no longer acceptable" convey a world in flux, a climate of perpetual unease and anticipation.

"Counterparts" is a meditation on the cyclical nature of violence, the haunting persistence of trauma, and the human attempt to find coherence in the aftermath of destruction. Dobyns crafts a narrative that is both specific in its imagery and universal in its themes, challenging the reader to confront the complexities of identity, memory, and the inexorable march towards entropy and oblivion.

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