Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"Come with Me" by David Wagoner is a richly layered poem that juxtaposes the romanticized allure of adventure with the stark realities of mortality. The narrative unfolds in a charged scene near the "actual genuine Casbah," a space laden with exotic and dangerous connotations. Wagoner’s speaker wrestles with contrasting desires: his companion?s yearning for escapism and his own sobering recognition of life’s limits.

The poem opens with an almost cinematic setup, the speaker teetering at the edge of the "Casbah," a symbol for mystery, intrigue, and danger. The physical setting is described with tangible grit: "tangle of bad ends, stairwells like cracks, / And desperate tourist trappings." This introduction immediately undermines any romanticized expectations, presenting the location as a far cry from the glamorous fantasies often associated with it.

The speaker’s companion, presumably his wife, embodies the yearning for escapism. Her eager "Yes Yes Yes" contrasts sharply with the speaker’s cautious hesitation. Her enthusiasm seems fueled by a desire for adventure and the thrill of danger, hinted at by her imagined role in a "wonderful worldly ghetto" or as a romanticized captive in a tale akin to The Arabian Nights. This dichotomy between the speaker and his companion sets up the central tension of the poem—her pursuit of fantasy versus his confrontation with reality.

Wagoner paints their dynamic with vivid imagery and subtle humor. The speaker recalls photographing her atop a dromedary and with a "Charmer / Whose king snake looked dead tired of playing cobra," moments that suggest a touristic engagement with the exotic, filtered through the lens of Western expectations. The wife’s romantic notions of herself as an adventurous heroine—ready to be "kidnapped by a sheik"—contrast with the speaker’s pragmatic role, steering her "through the clutches of street arabs." His role as protector and guide feels both dutiful and resigned, a tether to her flights of fancy.

The poem’s turning point occurs at the gate of the Casbah, where fantasy collides with harsh reality. The speaker sees "a man on his only carpet," a figure whose dire circumstances deflate any lingering notions of romance. The man’s carpet, once a symbol of magic and possibility, now bears the weight of mortality, swarmed by "blue-tailed flies." This stark image—a life reduced to its barest essentials—forces the speaker to confront the fragility of existence.

The speaker’s refusal to enter the Casbah ("So I said No") is not just a rejection of the wife’s fantasy but also an assertion of his own awareness of life’s limits. His description of her reaction—"her face already turning / Away from both of us in a cold fury"—suggests that this moment has exposed a chasm between their perspectives. Her anger may stem from the disruption of her narrative, her attempt to embody a romantic ideal thwarted by his refusal to play along.

At its core, the poem examines the tension between romantic ideals and stark realities. The wife’s desire to lose herself in a constructed fantasy clashes with the speaker’s grounded perspective, shaped by an acute awareness of mortality. The "difference between Love / And Death in the Matinee and love and death" underscores this divide; while the wife seeks the scripted drama of cinema, the speaker sees the unvarnished truth of life and its inevitable end.

Wagoner’s use of vivid, ironic imagery and his deft interplay between the fantastical and the real create a poignant meditation on the ways we navigate desire, escapism, and mortality. The speaker’s decision to say "No" is not merely a rejection of his wife’s fantasy but an affirmation of his own grappling with the raw, unscripted nature of life. Through this tension, the poem resonates as a reflection on the complexity of human relationships and the fragile balance between dream and reality.

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