Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Lynda Hull’s "Edgemont: The Swans" is a richly textured narrative poem that evokes the complex interplay between memory, mythology, and the inevitable passage of time. Through a vivid and multi-layered exploration of a childhood moment, Hull seamlessly weaves themes of innocence, transformation, and loss, creating a meditation on the nature of experience and its enduring impact on the self.

The poem opens with a sensory detail: "the dull silk thwack of an umbrella opening." This sound immediately anchors the reader in a specific moment, but it is followed by the disorienting shift of memory: "No, that was later." Hull?s use of fragmented recollection mirrors the way memory operates—blurring and reconstructing time. The umbrella, imbued with the "smell of some lost decade," becomes a symbol of shelter and the past, linking the girl’s immediate experience with the history embodied by her grandmother. The sensory richness—"camphor & lavender"—heightens the nostalgic tone, evoking a world at once tangible and distant.

The journey to feed the swans unfolds against a backdrop of urban and natural contrasts. The description of "tenements unpinning themselves from gray construction-paper sky" and the "wilderness of chrome dinettes" establishes a landscape that is both industrial and ephemeral. This contrasts with the natural world of the park, where "orange leaves paste copper beeches" and the lake becomes a site of transformation. The bus ride is a threshold, marking the transition from one realm to another—both physically and metaphorically.

The swans at the lake serve as the poem’s central symbol, embodying grace, mystery, and the possibility of divine presence. The girl kneels by the lake, observing her reflection in the water: "her face in the shallows... rippled over the bottom?s plush ferment of silt & leaves." This moment of self-recognition is fleeting, disrupted by the arrival of the swans, whose "coral beaks" and "black tongues" erase her reflection. The swans’ "alien grace" and "white weight" suggest a sublime otherness, hinting at the gods of mythology who "come to earth sometimes as swans." This encounter marks a moment of transcendence, where the girl is wholly immersed in the present, unburdened by her usual "longing for the future."

However, the poem does not remain in this idyllic space. Hull introduces thunder, signaling a shift from innocence to the complexities of human experience: "they all must leave the park for the heart?s violent destinations." The transition from childhood to adulthood is marked by "raptures & betrayals, departures & returns," underscoring the inevitability of change and the arbitrary nature of life’s unfolding events.

Hull intertwines the personal and the mythological, exploring how stories shape our understanding of the world. The swans become entangled with tales of war and loss: "the swans are garroted with piano wire, a soldier unraveling his skein of private nightmares." This dark turn reveals the vulnerability of beauty and the fragility of innocence in the face of human violence. The grandmother’s act of saving the newspaper clipping links personal memory with collective history, emphasizing the inescapable weight of the past.

The poem’s narrative blurs further as it explores the girl’s coming of age. A later scene depicts her first kiss in the darkened park, merging her personal experience with the mythic imagery of swans: "the hands that tangle the girl?s damp hair, tilt back a long swan?s neck." This moment of intimacy is both tender and unsettling, suggesting the complexity of desire and the loss of innocence. The swans, once symbols of transcendence, now evoke the ambiguity of transformation, as the girl’s reflection merges with the "stricken human face" of her partner.

Hull’s closing lines return to the image of the swans on the lake, their "clear wakes" carving through the water. The crumbs the girl once scattered as a child—symbols of her innocence—are now "chimerical as memory." The timelessness of the lake contrasts with the transience of human life, underscoring the impermanence of experience. The final image of the grandmother and granddaughter waiting for the bus, marked by the "minute, indigo numbers" of the tickets, brings the poem full circle. The umbrella, with its scent of the past, reappears, linking the present moment with the intricate web of memory and history.

"Edgemont: The Swans" is a masterful exploration of the intersections between personal memory, myth, and the passage of time. Hull’s lush imagery and intricate narrative structure invite readers to reflect on the ways in which moments of beauty and transformation resonate throughout our lives, leaving traces as ephemeral and enduring as the wake of a swan.

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