Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Ron Padgett’s "102 Today" is a playful yet melancholic meditation on absence, memory, and poetic legacy. The poem commemorates W. H. Auden—whose full name was Wystan Hugh Auden—imagining him as a spectral presence on what would have been his 102nd birthday. Padgett’s approach is both humorous and elegiac, blending surreal imagery with a light, conversational tone that reflects Auden’s own wit while acknowledging the inevitability of loss.

The opening lines—"If Wystan Auden were alive today / he’d be a small tangle of black lines / on a rumpled white bedsheet"—immediately establish the poem’s whimsical premise. Rather than picturing Auden in a literal sense, Padgett transforms him into a sketch-like abstraction, reducing him to "a small tangle of black lines." This image suggests both the physical frailty of an aged poet and a metaphor for the written word—Auden’s enduring presence exists not in flesh but in the inked lines of his poetry. The juxtaposition of "black lines" against the "rumpled white bedsheet" creates a stark visual contrast, evoking both the simplicity of the written page and the disorder of human existence. The description also carries a ghostly quality, as if Auden is merely a faint impression left behind, a shadow of his former self.

Padgett deepens the intimacy of this imagined encounter: "his little eyes looking up at you." The diminutive "little eyes" adds a note of tenderness, making Auden seem both vulnerable and endearing. There is something almost childlike in this depiction, as if the poet—once a towering literary figure—has been reduced to a quiet, inquiring presence. This shift from abstraction to personification invites the reader into a direct, almost surreal interaction with Auden’s lingering essence.

The next lines introduce a subtle existential question: "What did you bring? / Some yellow daffodils and green stems. / Or did they bring you?" The daffodils, a traditional symbol of renewal and spring, contrast with the notion of absence and loss. The reversal in the second line—suggesting that rather than bringing flowers, one might be brought by them—challenges agency and intention, hinting at how gestures of remembrance may be dictated by tradition rather than personal volition. The presence of green stems alongside the yellow daffodils emphasizes life and continuity, yet the question leaves room for uncertainty: is this act of offering truly a tribute, or merely a routine response to the passage of time?

Padgett then shifts to a more anecdotal mode, invoking Auden’s own words:
"Auden once said,
'Where the hell is Bobby?'
and we looked around,
but there was no Bobby there."
The use of direct speech enlivens the poem, breaking from its reflective tone to insert a moment of humor and absurdity. The lack of context for "Where the hell is Bobby?" adds to the playful mystery—who is Bobby, and why is Auden looking for him? The unanswered question reinforces the theme of absence, making Auden’s search for Bobby symbolic of a broader, unfulfilled longing.

The poem’s final lines return to a quiet resignation:
"Ah, Auden, no Bobby for you.
Just these daffodils in a clean white vase."
Here, Padgett directly addresses Auden, reinforcing the personal, almost affectionate tone of the poem. The phrase "no Bobby for you" becomes both a humorous refrain and a recognition of solitude—Auden, in this imagined afterlife, remains incomplete, his question unanswered. The daffodils in their "clean white vase" stand in contrast to the earlier "rumpled white bedsheet," suggesting a tidy, sterile form of remembrance that fails to capture the true essence of the man.

"102 Today" is at once an homage, a joke, and a quiet meditation on poetic legacy. Padgett resists a grandiose tribute, instead offering a light, humanizing portrait of Auden that plays with the tension between presence and absence, memory and forgetting. The poem’s casual tone and fragmentary structure mirror the way the past lingers in the present—sometimes clear, sometimes elusive, always subject to the whims of time. In the end, what remains are not definitive answers or grand gestures, but a few words, a handful of daffodils, and an unanswered question lingering in the air.

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