Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Robert Creeley’s poem "Fancy" delves into the intricacies of thought, truth, and the human pursuit of understanding, all while maintaining his characteristic minimalist style. The poem contemplates the nature of truth, rightness, and action, and ultimately, the emptiness that can accompany endless pondering. Through its simplicity and subtle shifts in tone, "Fancy" evokes a sense of quiet frustration with the limits of thought and a realization that even deep introspection may lead to a vague, insubstantial conclusion.

The poem opens with a series of questions: "Do you know what / the truth is, / what’s rightly / or wrongly said, / what is wiseness, / or rightness, what / wrong, or welldone / if it is, / or is not, done." These lines introduce the reader to the speaker’s preoccupation with philosophical and moral concerns. Creeley’s use of rhetorical questions suggests that the speaker is searching for answers but is unsure if these answers can ever truly be found. The repetition of "what" underscores the uncertainty, as if the speaker is grappling with multiple, competing concepts of truth, rightness, and wrongness.

The ambiguity of these lines reflects the difficulty of defining such abstract concepts. The speaker’s focus on what is "rightly or wrongly said" and "welldone if it is, / or is not, done" points to the complexities of language and action. The word "welldone" suggests a standard of accomplishment or correctness, but Creeley immediately questions this notion, implying that even the act of doing something right or well is not always clear-cut. The speaker seems caught in a web of definitions, struggling to grasp something solid amid a sea of relativism.

In the next line, the speaker simply states, "I thought." This stark shift from the abstract questioning of the previous lines to the concrete act of thinking marks a significant turn in the poem. The speaker acknowledges the process of reflection, yet the brevity of "I thought" suggests a kind of anticlimax—thinking, in itself, is not enough to arrive at any real conclusions. The repetition of "I thought and / thought and thought" intensifies this sense of futility. The speaker seems trapped in their own mind, endlessly turning over the same questions but arriving nowhere.

The next section—"In a place / I was sitting, / and there / it was, a little / faint thing / hardly felt, a / kind of small / nothing"—brings the speaker’s introspection to a close, but the resolution is less than satisfying. The "place" where the speaker was sitting is vague, perhaps reflecting the inner space of the mind. The discovery of "a little / faint thing / hardly felt" at the end of all this thinking suggests that, after all the mental effort, the speaker finds something so insubstantial that it almost doesn’t exist. The "small nothing" symbolizes the emptiness of overthinking, the realization that the more one tries to define and categorize concepts like truth, rightness, or wrongness, the more elusive they become.

Creeley’s language in this final section is particularly revealing. Describing the result of thought as "a little / faint thing" and "a / kind of small / nothing" suggests a profound disillusionment with the idea that thinking can yield definitive answers. The speaker has spent the entire poem searching for meaning, only to find that what they have discovered is almost imperceptible—a "nothing" that is barely there. The use of "hardly felt" adds to the sense that this realization is subtle and almost disappointing in its slightness.

Through this ending, Creeley critiques the idea that deep contemplation will necessarily lead to clarity. Instead, "Fancy" presents a more nuanced understanding of thought and introspection. The process of thinking—especially about abstract, philosophical ideas—often leads not to certainty but to further ambiguity. The "small nothing" the speaker finds can be interpreted as the limits of human understanding, or the emptiness that comes from trying to pin down elusive concepts through mere thought.

The poem’s structure mirrors its thematic concerns. The short lines and minimalist language reflect the simplicity and directness of the speaker’s questions, but as the poem progresses, this simplicity gives way to complexity and frustration. The repetition of words like "thought" and "nothing" reinforces the cyclical nature of the speaker’s introspection, while the final image of the "small nothing" serves as both the culmination and the collapse of this intellectual journey.

In "Fancy", Robert Creeley explores the limitations of thought and the futility of trying to define truth, rightness, and action through pure reflection. The poem’s minimalist style emphasizes the tension between the speaker’s desire for understanding and the ultimate emptiness they encounter. By the end, the speaker is left with a faint, almost imperceptible "nothing," suggesting that even the most intense introspection can lead to a realization of the limits of human knowledge. Through this exploration of thought, "Fancy" presents a powerful commentary on the paradoxes of philosophical inquiry and the inherent ambiguity of life’s most pressing questions.

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