Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

James Schuyler's poem "Love's Photograph (or Father and Son)" presents a vivid tableau of fragmented memories and images, each detail imbued with the weight of personal history and family legacy. The poem's structure, consisting of a series of seemingly disconnected yet evocative snapshots, reflects the way memory operates—disjointed, nonlinear, and deeply tied to physical objects and moments from the past.

The poem opens with "Detected little things," setting the tone for an exploration of minute, perhaps overlooked, elements that hold emotional significance. The "peach-pit basket watch-chain charm" and "an ivory cross wound with ivory ivy, a natural cross" are artifacts that evoke a sense of nostalgia, religious symbolism, and personal history. These items, though small, carry the weight of familial bonds and memories, suggesting the presence of a heritage that is both sacred and mundane.

The mention of the "Tatoosh Mountains" and "opaque crater lakes" introduces a broader geographical and natural landscape, grounding the poem in a specific, though mysterious, place. These locations are not just physical but also metaphorical, representing the opaque, often inaccessible nature of the past. The "knickerbockered boy who, drowned, smiles for a seeming ever on ice skates on ice-skate-scratched ice" presents a haunting image of a child frozen in time, his death immortalized in a photograph. The scratched surface of the snapshot mirrors the imperfections and distortions of memory—how it can be marred by time, yet still retain its emotional potency.

The repetition of "Taken, taken" reinforces the idea of loss and the passage of time, emphasizing how moments and lives are captured and then inevitably fade away. The line "Mad charges corrupt to madness their sane nurses" suggests the cyclical nature of care and madness, perhaps alluding to the ways in which familial roles and responsibilities can drive individuals to the brink. This theme of inheritance and the transference of burdens is underscored by the list of items and actions that follow: "Virginia creeper, Loose Tooth tanned black snake-skins, shot crows for crow wings for a black servant's hat." These items and actions are strange, almost surreal, yet they convey a sense of continuity and the passing down of traditions, however peculiar.

The line "lapped hot milk, flung mud in a Bible reader's crotch: / 'You shouldn't read the Bible nekkid!'" injects a moment of humor and irreverence into the poem, contrasting with the more somber images that precede it. This moment of childish mischief adds a layer of complexity to the relationship between the past and the present, suggesting that the memories being recalled are not just of solemn events but also of playful, subversive acts that challenge authority and tradition.

The phrase "Family opals, selfishness changes hands" hints at the way wealth and material possessions are passed down through generations, often accompanied by feelings of entitlement, greed, and familial tension. The return to the "Tatoosh Mountains, opaque crater lakes" reinforces the connection between place and memory, as if these locations are the repository of the family's collective experiences and secrets.

The poem concludes with the enigmatic request to "find me the fish skeleton enclosed in a fish skeleton (fish ate fish) he had." This image of a fish skeleton within another fish skeleton is a powerful metaphor for the layers of memory, history, and identity that are nested within one another, each consumed by the next. It also reflects the idea of predation and survival, suggesting that within every memory, there is another, more primal one lurking beneath the surface.

"Love's Photograph (or Father and Son)" is a poem rich with symbolism and dense with meaning. Schuyler masterfully weaves together personal and familial history with broader themes of memory, inheritance, and the passage of time. The poem's fragmented structure mirrors the way memories are often recalled—haphazardly, with certain images or moments standing out more vividly than others. Through his use of evocative imagery and a tone that shifts between the somber and the playful, Schuyler captures the complexity of familial relationships and the ways in which the past continues to shape the present.

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