Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Jack Hirschman’s "And Now" is an intimate, almost claustrophobic meditation on the tension between love and estrangement, desire and the slow erosion of connection. The poem is set in a small, enclosed space—*"In this 2 x 4, tender on down to the soft breathings"—which immediately establishes a setting of confinement. The dimensions of the room could suggest a cramped physical environment, but they also symbolize the narrowing space between the speaker and the lover, as if their relationship has shrunk into something barely containing them.

The poem’s opening evokes a quiet moment of intimacy, underscored by soft breathings and the rhythm of a cigaret passed as a metronome. This seemingly mundane detail serves as more than an atmospheric touch—it functions as a measuring device, a symbol of time ticking away, suggesting that something is shifting, changing. A cigarette, passed back and forth, becomes a kind of conversation in itself, a shared act that both connects and distances, hinting at a relationship in flux.

The second sentence introduces the moment of crisis: "Should you turn to me to touch and find that something’s / Come between us..." Here, Hirschman captures the subtle but devastating moment of realizing an unseen barrier has formed between lovers. The line is left open-ended, unresolved, mimicking the uncertainty of emotional distance. The ambiguity of something’s come between us is crucial—this something is unnamed, ineffable, and that makes it all the more insidious. It could be time, history, unspoken resentments, or simply the inevitable drift that happens in relationships.

The tension escalates in the next phrase: "should your fingers tick with agitation, / Tense, and cross with mine your wrist, and where / The furious strum is..." The choice of tick with agitation continues the theme of time and movement, but here, it becomes erratic, nervous—no longer the steady rhythm of the earlier metronome. The furious strum suggests both passion and conflict, evoking the taut strings of an instrument being played too hard, vibrating with an intensity that is both thrilling and destructive. The juxtaposition of cross with mine your wrist evokes both connection and struggle, as if the lovers’ bodies are brushing against each other in an awkward, conflicted way—intimacy disrupted by uncertainty.

In the closing lines, Hirschman shifts from the physical to the spiritual: "I will, even as my lips erode, / Lobe with a kiss more global than the world your ear..." The phrase even as my lips erode is striking—it conveys a sense of dissolution, weariness, as if the speaker’s very ability to love or communicate is fading. Yet, despite this erosion, there is still an act of tenderness, a kiss more global than the world placed upon the lover’s ear. This is an expansion outward, an attempt to reach beyond their confined space, to make love larger than the forces pulling them apart. The ear, the organ of listening, becomes the site of this final act of devotion.

The last line—"And whisper, when you whisper, what we're coming to, / God!"—is perhaps the most ambiguous yet powerful moment in the poem. The mirroring of whisper, when you whisper reinforces the idea of two people trying to communicate, echoing each other in hushed tones. But what we're coming to is left unresolved, a phrase that could imply either an impending end or a profound realization. The final exclamation—"God!"—is both an invocation and an exclamation of awe or despair. It suggests that whatever is happening between them is immense, beyond articulation, as if their relationship is moving toward something inevitable, whether it be dissolution or transcendence.

"And Now" captures a moment of deep emotional uncertainty, where love teeters between intimacy and estrangement. Hirschman’s language oscillates between the physical and the abstract, grounding the poem in gestures—the passing of a cigarette, the brush of wrists—while simultaneously stretching outward toward something vast and unspeakable. The poem does not resolve the tension it builds; rather, it lingers in the uncertainty, in the whispering and the space between two people. It is a poem about the fragility of connection, the quiet yet seismic shifts that occur within relationships, and the haunting realization that even the most tender love is subject to time’s erosion.

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