Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Louis Simpson’s poem "Dvonya" is a delicate meditation on memory, imagination, and the ephemeral nature of human connections. The poem evokes a sense of longing and nostalgia for a place and a person that, though vivid in the speaker's imagination, exist only in the realm of dreams. Through the construction of an intimate yet illusory scene, Simpson explores the intersection of reality and fantasy, ultimately questioning the nature of love and the authenticity of the memories we hold dear.

The poem begins with a specific geographical reference: "In the town of Odessa there is a garden and Dvonya is there." Odessa, a city with a rich cultural and historical background, immediately sets a stage filled with potential for romance and nostalgia. However, the speaker’s confession that he has "never been in Odessa" introduces a critical tension between the imagined and the real. Despite this, the speaker declares his love for Dvonya, a woman who exists only in his mind. The vivid details that follow—her "black hair," "eyes as green as a salad," and skin with the "odor of wildflowers"—create a tangible, almost sensuous image of Dvonya. The specificity of these details imbues the fantasy with a sense of realism, making the imagined encounter feel almost as concrete as any real experience.

The poem’s imagery is rich with natural elements that ground the dream in a familiar, earthly context. The comparison of Dvonya’s eyes to a "salad that you gather in August between the roots of alder" and the reference to her skin’s scent of "wildflowers" ties her to the natural world, suggesting a purity and simplicity in their connection. Yet, these details also emphasize the pastoral and almost idyllic nature of the imagined scene, reinforcing the notion that this is not grounded in reality but in an idealized, romanticized version of it.

Simpson then introduces the idea of mutual understanding: "We understand each other perfectly. / We are cousins twice removed." The notion of being "cousins twice removed" implies a distant, almost forgotten connection, one that is familiar yet faint. This relationship, distant and tenuous, mirrors the speaker’s own relationship with the imagined Dvonya—close in the dream, but fundamentally unreachable in reality. Their imagined conversation over tea, discussing "the plays of Chekhov as evening falls," further adds to the sense of intimacy and shared intellectual companionship. Chekhov, a master of exploring the complexities of human emotions and relationships, serves as an appropriate subject for this dream-like exchange, suggesting that their connection, though imaginary, is deeply intellectual and emotional.

However, the poem takes a turn with the admission that "this is only a dream." With this line, the speaker dismantles the carefully constructed fantasy, acknowledging that he is not truly in Odessa, and that neither he nor Dvonya are real in this context. The reference to his "citified speech" and the "old woman...peering between the curtains" adds a layer of realism, contrasting sharply with the idyllic dream. These elements hint at a more mundane reality, one where the speaker does not belong to the world he has imagined.

The concluding lines of the poem cast the entire scene into the realm of the ephemeral: "We are only phantoms, bits of ash, like yesterday's newspaper or the smoke of chimneys." The imagery of ash, newspaper, and smoke suggests something transient, easily scattered by the wind, much like the memories or dreams that the speaker clings to. The final line, "All that passed long ago on a summer night in Odessa," reinforces the idea that whatever connection or moment the speaker imagines has already faded into the past, lost to time and memory.

"Dvonya" is a poignant reflection on the nature of memory and the longing for connections that may never have existed outside of our imaginations. Simpson’s use of rich, sensory imagery to create a vivid yet ultimately illusory scene underscores the tension between reality and fantasy. The poem suggests that while these imagined connections can be deeply meaningful, they are, in the end, as fragile and fleeting as "bits of ash" or "smoke of chimneys." In this way, "Dvonya" captures the bittersweet essence of longing for a past or a person that is just out of reach, existing only in the recesses of the mind.

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