Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

James Schuyler's poem "A Head" navigates the haunting and complex interiority of a figure who, though alive, seems to dwell in the liminal space between life and death, beauty and decay. The poem presents a vivid portrait, not merely of a physical head, but of a consciousness burdened by an awareness of its own impermanence and the persistent presence of minor, yet poignant, losses.

Schuyler begins by introducing the figure as "A dead boy living among men as a man," a phrase that immediately blurs the lines between the living and the dead, youth and maturity. This figure is called an "angel," a term used not with religious reverence but rather as a desperate attempt to capture the essence of something both ethereal and unsettling. The poem’s speaker seems at a loss for words, grasping at this term as a placeholder for something more complex and less easily defined. The image of the figure’s "spaniel-eyed" expression, with its "bits of gold deep in the eyeballs," evokes a sense of innocence and beauty tinged with an unsettling undercurrent. The "bits of gold" are hidden, suggestive of a mysterious inner richness that is both alluring and inaccessible, buried beneath the surface.

Schuyler's description of the figure's face is rich in color and texture, with "earth red" lips and dark shadows beneath the eyes, capturing both the vitality and the weariness that coexist in this being. The poet’s language is tactile, inviting the reader to feel the "thick-grown, delicately thumb-smudged eyebrows" and the "taut flesh" that "loosens and softens" around the chin. This attention to the physical details of the face brings the figure to life in a way that is simultaneously vivid and unsettling; the beauty described is not unmarred but rather tinged with signs of wear and age, hinting at the passage of time and the inevitable fading of what was once youthful.

The second stanza deepens the portrayal of the figure, now stepping back "into the shadows of an empty door," a symbolic retreat into obscurity or anonymity. This "so-called angel" is portrayed as being "filled with a kind of death," a phrase that suggests an existence marked by an accumulation of small, pervasive losses rather than a single, dramatic event. Schuyler lists these losses as "fulfilled plans that no longer suit the hour," "appetites that sicken and are not slaked," and "lost or stolen handkerchiefs," each item reflecting the mundane yet significant diminutions that wear down the spirit. These losses are not grand or heroic but are instead the small disappointments and frustrations that erode one's sense of self over time.

Within this head, there once existed "the gray and green of parks before spring" and "water on a sidewalk between banks of snow," images that evoke a quiet, almost melancholic beauty. These images suggest a time when the figure's inner world was alive with subtle, serene pleasures, before the butterflies—symbols of fleeting beauty and transformation—"took flight" and left him. The departure of these butterflies, which "went away in a dance-step / to the tune of 'Poor Butterfly,'" signals the loss of vitality and the onset of a deeper, more pervasive sadness. The wind-up phonograph, described as a "right stele for him," serves as a fitting monument to this figure—a relic from the past, adorned with "bits of gold," that plays out a mournful tune for what has been lost.

In the closing lines, Schuyler contemplates the figure's role in the world after the day has faded into night. "May he minister as he can to whom he may, / himself or other," the poet writes, suggesting that even in his diminished state, this figure still has something to offer, whether to himself or to others. The "grace" that he might give is born of "all the little deaths he stands for," a poignant acknowledgment that beauty, even as it fades, can still impart something of value.

Ultimately, Schuyler's "A Head" is a meditation on the transitory nature of beauty, life, and the self. The figure in the poem is an "angel for his beauty," yet the poem accepts that this beauty will inevitably "fade and die." In exploring this theme, Schuyler does not offer easy consolations but instead presents a nuanced, deeply felt portrayal of a figure who embodies the quiet, persistent sadness of living in a world where everything is subject to change and loss. The poem's beauty lies in its honest confrontation with this reality, offering a moving reflection on what it means to live with the knowledge of impermanence.

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