Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Lawrence Durrell's poem "Summer" is a vivid and evocative depiction of the season, capturing the intense heat, the sensory richness, and the languid pace of summer days. The poem centers on the figure of the "little gold cigale," or cicada, which Durrell elevates to the status of "summer's second god," suggesting that this small, seemingly insignificant creature plays a crucial role in defining the experience of summer, particularly for lovers.

The cicada's "parched reverberating voice" is described as deepening "the gold thirst of the noons," an image that conveys both the intensity of the midday heat and the almost insatiable desire that summer provokes. The cicada's song, a relentless and resonant sound, mirrors the relentless heat of the sun, which Durrell describes as a "black sun"—an intriguing contradiction that suggests a sun so intense and overwhelming that it blots out all else, consuming everything in its path.

Durrell continues by describing how the sun's "long / Fig-ripening and vine-mellowing fall" progresses "so leisurely from heaven's golden car / Day by successive day to end it all." This passage evokes the slow, inevitable progression of summer as the sun ripens fruit and mellows wine, day by day bringing the season closer to its end. The imagery of the sun as a "golden car" moving through the heavens reinforces the idea of summer as a time of abundance, richness, and gradual fulfillment.

The poem then shifts to focus on the landscape, where "the Latin heat has stretched / The skin of valleys." This image suggests that the intense heat of summer has a transformative effect on the land, stretching and pulling it taut like skin. The cicada's voice "rubbing and scraping at the lover's ear" becomes an oracle, recalling "past suns" and the pleasures of summers long gone. The cicada's song, thus, is not just a background noise but a powerful reminder of the past, evoking memories of "leisure and brown skins," of "wine mixed with kisses," and of "dreamless summer sleeps."

Durrell connects these idyllic summer memories to a kind of prelapsarian innocence, likening them to the time "In Adam's Eden long before the Fall." This reference to the Garden of Eden suggests that summer, in its purest form, is a time of innocence, pleasure, and untroubled existence—a state of being that has been lost but can still be glimpsed through the sensual experiences of the season.

In "Summer," Durrell masterfully weaves together imagery of heat, light, sound, and touch to create a richly textured portrait of the season. The cicada, as the poem's central figure, symbolizes the essence of summer, embodying both its intensity and its fleeting nature. The poem captures the way summer can evoke a deep, almost primal response, recalling memories of past pleasures and a time of innocence that, though lost, still resonates in the heat of the sun and the sound of the cicada's song.

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