Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Robert Penn Warren’s "Promises: 1. What Was the Promise that Smiled from the Maples at Evening?" reflects on memory, loss, and the elusive promises of childhood and life. Through a series of vivid, nostalgic images, Warren explores how moments from youth, tinged with both beauty and sadness, contain promises that are not always fully understood in the present but are revealed over time. The poem's tone is contemplative, tinged with a sense of longing and the realization that the fulfillment of certain promises comes with the passage of time and the inevitable approach of death.

The opening line, "What was the promise that smiled from the maples at evening?" immediately sets up the central question of the poem: what is the meaning of the unspoken promise that nature seems to offer in moments of beauty and stillness? The promise is "smiling dim from the shadow, recessed," suggesting that it is not immediately clear or accessible. It hides within the folds of nature, in the evening light filtering through the maples, hinting at something deeper but remaining just out of reach.

As the fathers return home, "each aware of his own unspecified burden," the everyday weight of life is introduced. The fathers, caught in the routine of life, return at "sun-dip," a moment that symbolizes both the close of day and the transition from one phase of life to another. This transition hints at the inevitable progression of time, as each generation carries its own burdens while being vaguely aware of something larger at play.

The imagery of hydrangeas and fireflies floating in the "spectral precinct" of twilight suggests a world where the boundaries between the real and the imagined blur. The evening becomes a time of reflection, where nature takes on a dreamlike quality, and the first firefly "utters cold burning," symbolizing both light and fragility. The scene evokes a sense of nostalgia, but also a foreboding, as the natural world transitions into darkness.

The poem then moves into an image of boys shooting bullbats at sunset, an act that is both violent and innocent. The boys "shout when hit bullbat spins down in that gold light," capturing a moment of both exhilaration and remorse. The joy of youth, symbolized by the act of shooting the bird, quickly turns to the realization of death—"Why, that's blood, it is wet." The line "Your heart in the throat swells like joy" captures the confusion of childhood emotions, where excitement and sorrow coexist. The bird's open eyes symbolize the rawness of the experience, and the boy is faced with the reality of mortality, even as he is still too young to fully comprehend it.

The imagery shifts again, this time to children pulling makeshift trains of shoe boxes with candles inside. The children, "gravely" playing in the darkness, evoke an innocence and a deep sense of ritual. The act of pulling the candle-lit trains suggests a solemn imitation of adult life, but there is also a sense of magic in the flickering light and the children's imaginative play. However, the speaker recalls fleeing from the scene, hiding in the darkness as the other children call his name. This impulse to flee suggests an early awareness of the deeper, perhaps darker, realities that lurk beneath childhood innocence. The "sad little trains" continue to glimmer on, representing both the persistence of innocence and the inevitable loss of it.

The poem then moves into a more somber reflection on death and memory. After "the dying was done," the speaker reflects on the long years that "flared into black" like burnt paper. The house has shrunk into silence, and the odor of flowers—perhaps from a funeral—has nearly faded. The cold gust at the back, along with the "door on the dark" that suddenly bangs open and shuts again, evokes a sense of eerie finality. The speaker acknowledges that "something was lost in between," suggesting that the passage from childhood to adulthood, from life to death, involves an irretrievable loss, even though the path backward is long and difficult to trace.

In one of the poem's most striking moments, the speaker describes standing in a cold evening where "the long dead" sleep. As the landscape around him fades into grayness, the ground beneath his feet becomes like glass, and he sees deep into the earth, where the "fleshly habiliments rent." In a moment of almost mystical clarity, the bones of "Ruth and Robert"—perhaps his parents or ancestors—are illuminated in a "phosphorus of glory." This vision of the dead lying side by side is brief but profound, as the light quickly fades and the earth returns to darkness.

The poem’s ending offers a moment of reconciliation and understanding. The speaker lifts his gaze to the familiar world, observing the landscape of woods, fields, and town roofs beneath the first star. In this moment of twilight, the voices of the dead—calm and steady—speak to the speaker, addressing him as "Child." Ruth's voice and Robert’s voice, like the calm of a "night field, or far star," offer reassurance: "We died only that every promise might be fulfilled." This final line suggests that the unspoken promises of life, hinted at throughout the poem, are only fully realized in death. The parents' calm acceptance of their fate provides a sense of closure and fulfillment, as they suggest that death itself is part of the larger promise of life—a promise that, while obscure in youth, becomes clearer over time.

In "Promises: 1. What Was the Promise that Smiled from the Maples at Evening?" Robert Penn Warren reflects on the fleeting nature of childhood innocence, the inevitability of death, and the mysterious promises that life offers through nature and experience. The poem moves through different phases of life, from the joys and sorrows of youth to the somber reflection on mortality, ultimately suggesting that the promises of life are fulfilled not in the moments of joy or sorrow themselves, but in the final reconciliation with death. Through its rich imagery and contemplative tone, the poem invites readers to reflect on the promises that have shaped their own lives and how those promises might be fulfilled in ways they cannot yet understand.

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