Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"Briggflatts: 5" by Basil Bunting is the concluding section of his long poem "Briggflatts," which is widely regarded as one of the greatest achievements in modernist poetry. This final part encapsulates the poem's overarching themes of memory, the passage of time, the beauty of the natural world, and the enduring power of love. Through exquisite imagery and musical language, Bunting crafts a meditative reflection on the cyclical nature of life and the constancy of change.

The opening lines, "Drip — icicle’s gone," immediately evoke a sense of transience, setting the tone for a section deeply rooted in the imagery of seasons and the passage from one year to the next. The solstice, marking both an ending and a beginning, serves as a backdrop for the poet's contemplation of life's ephemerality and the gradual fading of youth and vigor.

Winter, with its stripping away of color and vitality, is depicted not just as a season of decline but also as a time of stark beauty and clarity. The cormorant, "whose grief turns carnival," symbolizes the capacity to find joy and celebration in the midst of sorrow and loss. The natural world, with its intricate patterns of interaction and survival, mirrors the complexities of human emotion and experience.

As Bunting moves through a landscape rich with marine life and coastal scenes, he weaves together observations of nature with reflections on human endeavors and desires. The refusal to "take, nor troll / roe of its like for salmon" speaks to a choice to leave the natural world undisturbed, to observe and appreciate without the need to dominate or possess.

The poem then shifts to a more personal register, recounting a journey through life marked by the pursuit of knowledge, the experience of love, and the inevitable encounters with loss and disappointment. The "Coda" serves as a poignant closing to the poem, invoking the image of a journey through the night, guided by song and the forces of nature. The questions posed — "what’s lost, what’s left, / what horn sunk, / what crown adrift" — reflect a search for meaning in the face of uncertainty and the inexorable flow of time.

Throughout "Briggflatts: 5," Bunting's mastery of language and form is evident in his ability to capture the sublime in the ordinary, the universal in the specific. The poem is both a celebration of the world's beauty and a lament for its transience, a meditation on the enduring power of love and the solace found in art and the natural world.

In "Briggflatts," Bunting has created a work that resonates with the rhythms of life itself, inviting readers to reflect on their own journeys through the seasons of existence. It stands as a testament to the poet's belief in the transformative power of poetry to convey the deepest truths of the human heart and the world around us.

POEM TEXT: https://voetica.com/poem/4945

Copyright (c) 2025 PoetryExplorer

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!

Other Poems of Interest...