Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

David St. John?s "Iris" is a vivid and haunting poem that weaves together imagery, memory, and metaphor in a meditation on time, loss, and the interplay of presence and absence. The speaker?s deep engagement with the iris—a flower symbolic of messages, faith, and transformation—provides a lens through which a fragmented narrative unfolds, one that spans generations and landscapes, merging the personal with the universal.

The poem begins with an assertion that draws the reader into the speaker’s imaginative perspective: "There is a train inside this iris." The statement’s surreal nature invites both skepticism and intrigue, while the repetition reinforces the speaker?s conviction. The train becomes a central metaphor, its movement embodying the passage of time and the journeys—both literal and emotional—that connect people and places.

The iris itself is more than a flower; it is a vessel of memory and imagination. The speaker?s close observation of its features, such as the "child?s finger bearded in black banners" and the "darkened porthole" of a window, transforms the flower into a microcosm, a stage for the unfolding narrative. The imagery evokes a train compartment where an "old woman" and a "boy" are passengers. Their presence is rendered in intimate, tactile detail: the woman’s "silver" hair and "cold & bruised shoulders" suggest both frailty and resilience, while the boy’s proximity underscores the bond between them.

The train?s journey, traversing the "prairies" and "the black woods of her New York," captures a sense of movement through physical and emotional landscapes. The mention of the "five lakes" anchors the scene in a geographic specificity that contrasts with the dreamlike quality of the speaker?s reflections. As the train metaphorically "drives deep into the damp heart of its stem," the iris itself becomes a repository of memory, its stem a conduit for the passage of time.

The speaker’s act of bending "close above the iris" becomes a symbolic gesture, as if peering into the depths of the past. This movement blurs the boundaries between observer and participant, drawing the speaker—and, by extension, the reader—into the narrative. The "gravel of the garden path / Cracks under [the speaker?s] feet," further grounding the scene in sensory experience and connecting the speaker’s present to the remembered or imagined past.

The imagery of the "French railway pier" introduces an atmosphere of departure and separation. The boy’s gesture of waving goodbye to his grandmother resonates with themes of transience and the inevitability of loss. The flower itself becomes a site of convergence, a "fresh iris" held by the boy, symbolizing both beauty and impermanence.

As the poem progresses, the narrative fragments dissolve into a meditation on absence. The train, the old woman, and the boy are all gone, leaving only the iris "curl[ing] on its stalk" in the shade of the elms. The stillness of this final image contrasts with the earlier sense of movement and vitality, underscoring the inevitability of endings. The reference to the "icy & bitter fragrance" of a woman’s wake evokes the lingering presence of memory and its ability to haunt and shape the present.

The poem’s structure is free verse, with its fluid lineation and lack of consistent rhyme or meter reflecting the organic, associative nature of the speaker’s reflections. The enjambment mirrors the rhythm of thought, allowing images and ideas to unfold and overlap. The shifting perspectives—from the close-up of the iris to the expansive journey of the train—create a layered narrative that resists linearity, emphasizing the interplay of memory, imagination, and observation.

Iris is a meditation on how objects, landscapes, and fleeting moments hold the echoes of human experience. The interplay between the concrete and the ephemeral invites readers to consider the ways in which memory and metaphor transform the ordinary into something transcendent. Through its rich imagery and reflective tone, the poem captures the beauty and sorrow of life’s transitory nature, leaving an indelible impression of both loss and lingering presence.

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