Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Derek Walcott's "Midsummer: 36" is a contemplative reflection on age, memory, and the enduring power of language and history. Set against the backdrop of autumnal Warwickshire, the birthplace of Shakespeare, the poem evokes a sense of fading vitality and the passage of time. The imagery of the natural world, with its associations of decline and renewal, parallels the lives of the poem’s aging characters, while Shakespearean allusions reinforce the idea of cultural memory and the resilience of words.

The opening lines describe the setting in rich detail: "The oak inns creak in their joints as light declines / from the ale-coloured skies of Warwickshire." The "oak inns" suggest a venerable, almost ancient space, creaking as if burdened by the weight of time. The "ale-coloured skies" evoke warmth and comfort, contrasting with the somber decline of light, signaling the end of the day and, metaphorically, the decline of life. Warwickshire, Shakespeare’s homeland, immediately situates the poem in a landscape rich with literary and historical significance, underscoring the themes of aging and legacy.

As the poem progresses, the imagery of autumn becomes more pronounced: "Autumn has blown the froth from the foaming orchards," where the natural world has begun its inevitable descent into dormancy. The "white-haired regulars" in the inns are symbolic of this autumnal phase of life, drawing "chairs nearer the grate" to seek warmth and comfort as they face the encroaching cold. The act of spitting on logs that "crackle into leaves of fire" suggests a transformation of the natural world—leaves turning to fire in the hearth—symbolic of both the destructive and regenerative power of time.

The old men in the poem are portrayed as growing "deafer," uncertain whether the sounds they hear are "the drone of the abbeys from matins to compline" or the "hornet's nest of a chain saw working late." The juxtaposition of sacred sounds from the abbeys’ prayers with the harsh, mechanical buzz of a chain saw emphasizes the collision of the old world and the new, the spiritual and the industrial. This blurring of sounds reflects the confusion of aging, as the men’s senses and memories begin to fail. The reference to the "Norman chapel" adds another layer of historical depth, evoking a time when the landscape was shaped by medieval influences, further connecting the present to the distant past.

The evening, with its "moth" and "owl," brings a sense of quiet and mystery, as nature's creatures stir in the growing darkness. The "fish-mouthed moon" that "swims up from wavering elms" reinforces the aquatic imagery of the poem, with the moon resembling a fish navigating through the tree branches. This image of the moon rising through the elms introduces a dreamlike, surreal quality to the setting, as the natural world continues its slow, cyclical movement, indifferent to the human lives unfolding below.

Walcott shifts focus to four old men sitting on "garden benches," engaging in conversation about their pasts: "talking of the bows they have drawn, their strings of wenches." These men, with their "coined eyes shrewdly glittering like the Thames’ / estuaries," are reminiscent of Shakespearean characters like Justice Shallow and Silence from "Henry IV, Part 2"—aging men who reminisce about their youthful exploits and long-lost glory. Their "coined eyes" suggest both the wealth of their experience and the sharpness of their memories, as they hold on to these stories of the past like precious currency. The comparison of their eyes to the Thames’ estuaries reinforces the sense of flow and continuity, as their stories stretch across time like the river’s journey to the sea.

The speaker notes that he hears "their old talk carried / through cables laid across the Atlantic bed," a reference to the undersea cables that connect continents and allow for the transmission of communication. This image suggests that the stories and memories of the old men are part of a larger, global network of cultural memory, passed down through time and space. The speaker’s connection to these men, despite the distance, is reinforced by the phrase "I can drop their names / like familiars," suggesting a deep familiarity with these figures of the past, whose stories have been absorbed into the speaker’s own consciousness.

Walcott introduces a sense of mythic or divine forgiveness with the line, "those bastard grandsires / whose maker granted them a primal pardon." This reference to a "primal pardon" implies that these men, despite their flaws and misdeeds, have been forgiven by some higher power, perhaps because they are part of a larger, more enduring cultural narrative. The "worm that cores the rotting apple / of the world" and the "hornet's chain saw" symbolize the forces of decay and destruction in the world, yet they "cannot touch the words / of Shallow or Silence in their fading garden." Here, Walcott highlights the immortality of language and art, which remain untouched by the physical decay that affects all other aspects of life. The characters of Shallow and Silence, though they exist in a "fading garden," are preserved through the power of Shakespeare’s words, a testament to the enduring legacy of literature.

In "Midsummer: 36," Walcott masterfully explores the themes of aging, memory, and the permanence of language through the lens of a pastoral, autumnal scene in Warwickshire. The poem’s rich imagery and allusions to Shakespearean characters emphasize the passage of time and the inevitability of physical decline, while celebrating the lasting power of words and stories to transcend that decline. Through the conversations of the old men and the speaker’s reflections on history, Walcott suggests that while the physical world may wither and fade, the cultural and literary legacy of figures like Shakespeare will continue to shape and preserve human experience across generations.

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