Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"Comedy of Belief" by Charles Henri Ford is a sprawling and imaginative exploration of the mind's confrontation with the ambiguities and paradoxes of belief and doubt. This piece exemplifies Ford's avant-garde approach, marked by surreal and unexpected imagery, weaving a series of whimsical yet poignant scenes that challenge conventional interpretations of existence and introspection. Throughout, Ford’s language oscillates between playful surrealism and deep existential inquiry, illustrating the dichotomies of human experience.

From the outset, the poem immerses the reader in an environment where logic and reason seem secondary to an elaborate, almost mystical belief system. The speaker declares, "I believe in the day hung between your hands," an image that evokes the suspension of time within a moment of intimacy or trust. This opening positions belief not just as an abstract concept but as a tangible and dynamic force, situated within human relationships. The subsequent lines grapple with this interaction: "shall I bridle the eggs of the evening, / or break them on the backs of boys," phrases that juxtapose the serene imagery of evening with the violence and uncertainty of choice.

Ford's use of the metaphorical stray cat that embodies the heart, "who roams your body, looking for a home," further enriches the complexity of belief. This cat represents an unpredictable, searching force within the individual—a heart in perpetual motion. The rhetorical question that follows, "if I masked my face with its sparkling fur, / then would its eyes go out like lights?" suggests a duality between embracing the irrational aspects of oneself and the potential consequence of extinguishing their essence.

The poem's second section invites the reader into an almost mystical dialogue, as the speaker offers images such as "I throw you the ball of the sea. Catch it." This gesture, a symbolic passing of boundless, uncontrollable nature, evokes themes of trust and surrender to something greater than oneself. The playful yet serious undertones throughout this stanza, coupled with lines like "You are the playmate I did not know had been planted," reveal a belief in serendipity, suggesting that relationships and moments are sown long before one recognizes them.

Ford’s distinctive voice embraces contradiction, underscoring the tension between belief and skepticism. The idea of listening "to the sun, a prisoner that sings" captures this essence. The sun, a potent symbol of life and illumination, is paradoxically portrayed as both captive and liberating. This imagery resonates with the speaker's search for understanding amidst the chaotic interplay of certainty and ambiguity. Such contradictions come to a climax in statements like "I believe that stars starve at the sight of you," a hyperbolic inversion that suggests cosmic awe in the presence of human significance.

The theme of doubt and belief as “twin apparitions” runs recurrently through the poem, most strikingly in the repetition of "Belief, mysterious as heat, and doubt, / twin apparitions, jerk my head about." Here, Ford acknowledges that belief is not a static state but one interwoven with doubt, each pulling the speaker in opposing directions. The image of belief as “wary as any root” encapsulates its tenacity and potential for growth, while also alluding to the unknowns it harbors underground.

Ford’s linguistic dexterity is evident in passages like "To tone down language is to tongue-tie the pulse, / meter of mood, tape-line of longing," where he critiques the limitation of expression. Language, as a medium, is portrayed as both enabling and restricting—an algebra of symbols that paradoxically seeks to map the boundless terrain of emotion and thought. This critical eye towards language itself underscores the poet's acknowledgment of the absurdity in trying to pin down the abstract, leading to an acceptance of the inherent chaos within belief.

The poem's conclusion offers a powerful, if ambiguous, resolution. With lines such as "While eggs bulge, music burns, stars say hello, / apples stagger, pulses rip, the dream pops open," Ford depicts the culmination of sensory and emotional experience. These images, brimming with energy, lead into the final meditation on belief: “Doubt will topple the last door, the cold grave’s. / Belief, let the wind walk over us, and the grass wave.” Here, doubt is both destructive and inevitable, associated with death itself. Yet, in contrast, belief is presented as a force that, even in surrender, allows for continuity and renewal—“the wind walk[ing] over us, and the grass wave.”

Ford’s “Comedy of Belief” is not a comedy in the conventional sense, but rather an intricate dance where belief, doubt, language, and experience interact with the unpredictable rhythm of life. The poem's form is free and associative, mirroring the speaker’s internal dialogue, and its structure meanders with a purpose that resists linear narrative. Ford’s work captures the essence of modernist exploration, championing abstraction and surrealism as vehicles for deeper existential truth. The reader is left contemplating the fine line between certainty and ambiguity, urged to embrace both the mysterious warmth of belief and the cold depths of doubt as inseparable facets of the human condition.

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