Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Robert Wrigley’s "Earthly Meditations: 1. The Afterlife" is a vivid and visceral exploration of life, death, and the cyclical nature of existence as experienced through the lens of the natural world. Wrigley blends the sacred and the mundane, the grotesque and the beautiful, in a meditation that confronts mortality and the transformations it entails. The poem’s layered imagery and philosophical undertones invite readers to reflect on the interconnectedness of all living things and the inevitable return to the earth.

The poem opens in spring, a season of renewal, with a scene that juxtaposes life and decay: "Spring, and the first full crop of dandelions gone / to smoke, the lawn lumpish with goldfinches." The image of dandelions reduced to "smoke" captures their ephemeral nature, a reminder of the transience of life. The "goldfinches, / hunched in their fluffs, fattened by seed," represent the vibrancy of life, yet their actions—feeding on seeds of decay—tie them to the cycle of consumption and renewal. This dynamic is reinforced by the "wind-bared peduncular forest," where even the fragile structures of nature bend and submit to time.

The speaker envisions their own dissolution into the earth: "I would enter the sky through the soil / myself, sing up the snail bowers / and go on the lam with the roots." This metaphorical descent into the soil suggests a return to the fundamental elements of life, where even decomposition becomes a form of transcendence. The "billion love-mouths to suckle and feed" evoke the microscopic world of bacteria and roots, turning the grotesque reality of decay into a nurturing, life-sustaining process. This perspective elevates death to an act of giving, an essential contribution to the continuity of life.

The poem shifts to a harsher vision of nature: "Where the river will be next week, / a puddle two trout go savagely dying in." This image of desperation and decline contrasts with the earlier, more harmonious view of nature, highlighting the brutality of survival and the inevitability of death. The "bland, Darwinian sand"—formed from bone, tree skin, and mussel shells—underscores the indifference of natural processes. Even the smallest elements, such as "viral stones dividing like mold," contribute to the relentless cycle of creation and destruction.

Wrigley introduces a personal anecdote, blending memory with existential reflection: "At twelve, I buried the frog because it was dead / and dug it up because I?d been dreaming." This act of burying and exhuming the frog encapsulates a childlike confrontation with mortality, curiosity mingled with guilt. The "fish belly light" and "lowly chirruped chorus / of amens" transform the moment into a spiritual reckoning, where the ordinary becomes imbued with the weight of the afterlife. The speaker’s fear—"I thought my nights might smell of hell"—reflects the moral and existential anxiety tied to the act of killing, even unintentionally.

The speaker’s guilt evolves into a broader meditation on the processes of decay and renewal: "Bland, hum-drum, quotidian guilt— / if I?ve killed one frog, I?ve killed two." The admission expands the personal act into a universal truth about humanity’s impact on nature. The invocation of "Saint Rot and the sacraments of maggots" introduces a grotesque sanctity to the process of decomposition. This macabre transformation of death into nourishment parallels religious rituals, suggesting that decay is both sacrament and necessity.

Wrigley further explores the cyclical nature of life: "knowing is humus and sustenance is sex. / It accrues and accrues, it stews / tumorous with delight." The pairing of "knowing" with "humus" and "sustenance" with "sex" connects intellectual and physical existence to the organic processes of the earth. The imagery of "accrues" and "stews" emphasizes growth and abundance, while the word "tumorous" introduces a note of grotesque vitality. This duality reflects the tension between life’s beauty and its inevitable decay.

The closing lines encapsulate the transient nature of existence: "Tomorrow?s / a shovelful, the spit of the cosmos, one day / the baby?s breath is no longer a rose." The reference to "tomorrow" as "a shovelful" ties the future to the act of burial and renewal, where the earth perpetually absorbs and transforms. The "spit of the cosmos" evokes the vast, indifferent forces that shape life and death. The transformation of "the baby?s breath" into "no longer a rose" captures the fleeting nature of beauty and innocence, emphasizing the inevitability of change and loss.

Wrigley’s use of free verse and richly layered imagery mirrors the complexity and interconnectedness of the natural processes he describes. The poem’s tone shifts seamlessly between reverence and humor, horror and acceptance, reflecting the multifaceted nature of life and death.

"Earthly Meditations: 1. The Afterlife" is a powerful reflection on mortality, renewal, and humanity’s place within the natural world. Through its vivid descriptions and philosophical depth, Robert Wrigley invites readers to confront the beauty and inevitability of decay, transforming the fear of death into an affirmation of life’s cyclical and interconnected nature. The poem resonates as a celebration of the earth’s processes and a humbling reminder of the impermanence of all things.

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