Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Lawrence Durrell’s poem "External Contemporaries, Six Portraits: Dmitri of Carpathos" presents a vivid and somewhat tragic portrait of Dmitri, a man whose life seems to oscillate between the mundane and the mythical, blending the grim realities of his existence with a lingering sense of past grandeur and lost potential. Through its rich imagery and evocative language, the poem explores themes of decadence, disillusionment, and the inexorable passage of time.

The poem opens with the image of "Four card-players," immediately situating the reader in a scene of casual, almost grimy, social interaction. The "ikon of the saint" placed on the "pitted table among eight hands" introduces a juxtaposition between the sacred and the profane, as the holy icon, symbolizing purity and spiritual guidance, is surrounded by hands that "cough and spit" or "close like mandibles" on cards or a bottle. This image conveys a sense of decay and moral decline, where even symbols of faith are reduced to mere decorations in a setting marked by vice and indulgence.

Among these card players is Dmitri, who is distinguished by his "soft transpontine nose / Fuller of dirty pores pricked on a chart." This description paints a picture of a man who has traveled widely ("transpontine" meaning across the sea) but whose experiences have left him physically and perhaps morally sullied. The "dirty pores" suggest a life of excess and neglect, a man who has lived hard and bears the physical marks of his dissolute lifestyle.

Dmitri is described as having "stood akimbo on the turning world," implying a certain defiance or stubbornness in the face of life’s changes. He has "shaken hands" from "Cimbalu to Smyrna," indicating a wide range of experiences and interactions, yet this worldly knowledge has not brought him peace or fulfillment. Instead, Dmitri has "tasted the depths of every hidden sound," whether in "wine or poppy," marking him as a man deeply acquainted with both the pleasures and the pains of addiction. The phrase "a drunkard with a drunkard's heart" encapsulates his identity, one defined by a cycle of indulgence and degradation. The fact that he "never yet was known to pay his round" adds to the portrayal of Dmitri as a man who takes from life and from others but gives little in return, living on the fringes of both society and morality.

The poem then shifts focus to Dmitri’s "rotten boat" in the harbor, an extension of his own decay. The boat, with its "beard green from winter quarters," is personified as something alive yet deteriorating, much like Dmitri himself. The boat "turns / Her scraggy throat to nudge the northern star," suggesting a yearning or a faint hope for direction or salvation, but the image is undercut by the boat’s state of disrepair and its comparison to a "gipsy" that "burns and burns; goes wild." The boat, like Dmitri, is restless, aimless, and consumed by a destructive energy that leads nowhere.

The poem’s final lines introduce a haunting image: "Till something climbs the hill / And stands beside him at the tavern table / To pluck his drunken elbow like a child." This "something" is ambiguous, leaving it open to interpretation whether it is a literal figure, a hallucination born of Dmitri’s intoxicated state, or a metaphorical representation of his conscience or fate. The act of "plucking his drunken elbow like a child" evokes a sense of innocence and vulnerability, contrasting sharply with Dmitri’s hardened and weathered character. This image suggests that despite his outward degradation, there remains a part of Dmitri that is still capable of being touched by a sense of tenderness or vulnerability, even if only fleetingly.

In "Dmitri of Carpathos," Durrell presents a complex character study of a man who embodies both the weariness and the reckless abandon of a life lived on the edge. Through the vivid descriptions of Dmitri and his surroundings, the poem captures the tension between the desire for meaning and the reality of decline, exploring how a person can become lost in the pursuit of fleeting pleasures while still being haunted by the ghosts of what might have been. Dmitri’s life, as depicted in the poem, is one of disillusionment and decay, yet it is also marked by moments of beauty and poignancy, making him a tragic figure caught in the inexorable tide of time and circumstance.

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