Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Lynda Hull’s "So Many Swimmers" is a haunting meditation on memory, loss, and the fragile interplay between permanence and impermanence. The poem blends physical and emotional landscapes, drawing the reader into a world where images, sounds, and sensations resonate with the echoes of grief and transience.

The poem begins with a vivid description of the season’s transition to winter: "Confettied to shreds, the last leaves darken gusts." Hull’s language captures not only the physical changes in the environment but also their emotional undertones. The "perishing slant of afternoon" sets a somber mood, emphasizing the passage of time and the inevitability of decay. This natural backdrop mirrors the internal state of the speaker, whose reflections on photographs evoke a sense of nostalgia and longing.

The photographs scattered on the table become portals into the past, connecting the speaker to a friend now distant in death. The "afterlife?s opacity" and the friend?s "face shadows the surface" suggest the elusive nature of memory—both vivid and intangible. The juxtaposition of "so many cherished strangers" with the "stolen kiss returned with its burden" highlights the complexity of relationships and the weight of recollection. These moments are rendered with Hull’s characteristic lyricism, inviting readers to dwell in the liminal space between presence and absence.

Hull’s imagery shifts seamlessly between the tangible and the abstract, creating a dreamlike quality. The "struck chord of some rapt entropic melody" evokes a sense of fleeting beauty, while the "static fall of a kimono from alabaster shoulders" hints at intimacy and vulnerability. The interplay of textures—"blue room," "crumbling plaster," "gauze fluting the brow"—constructs a scene that feels both vivid and ephemeral, mirroring the fragmented nature of memory itself.

Nature’s unpredictability serves as a backdrop to the speaker’s introspection. The "December?s first gale" and the "water foaming the road" suggest a world in flux, emphasizing the speaker?s own emotional turbulence. This natural chaos contrasts with the stillness of the photographs and the memories they evoke, creating a tension between external and internal experiences. The "fence pickets undo themselves" and the "television fills with snow" underscore the fragility of human constructs, both physical and emotional.

The poem reaches a poignant moment as the speaker recalls a specific photograph of the friend: "propped in wicker, the crescent of beach dissolving to sea behind him." The imagery conveys both the beauty and the transience of the moment, as the beach—like memory—dissolves into the vastness of the sea. The "ashen cyclamen" beside the friend becomes a powerful symbol of mortality and resilience, its "pure curve" echoing the grace of cormorants in flight. These birds, "beyond tawny estuaries," represent freedom and continuity, contrasting with the speaker?s sense of loss.

Hull’s masterful use of perspective deepens the emotional impact of the poem. The friend’s "mortal glance" initially seems "empty," but this emptiness is revealed to be the speaker’s own. The "half-dreamt room" becomes a metaphor for grief, a space where memory and imagination intertwine. The closing lines expand the scope of the poem, as the circling cormorants become a symbol of transcendence, "beyond the coast of anything we know." This imagery suggests that while loss is inevitable, there is also a beauty in the cyclical and eternal aspects of life.

"So Many Swimmers" is a deeply evocative poem that captures the complexity of grief and memory with striking imagery and emotional resonance. Hull’s ability to weave personal reflection with natural and symbolic elements creates a rich, multilayered exploration of the ways we navigate loss and the lingering presence of those we have loved.

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