Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

John Kerouac’s "Hymn" is a deeply personal and spiritual poem that captures a moment of existential clarity through a mundane but profoundly affecting experience. The poem is rooted in the Beat aesthetic—unfiltered emotion, spontaneous expression, and a fusion of the sacred and the ordinary. It is a moment of revelation, not through grand theological inquiry but through the simple act of witnessing human vulnerability.

The poem opens with the image of Brooklyn Bridge in the morning, immediately grounding the reader in the landscape of New York, a place Kerouac often wandered, observing life with the eyes of a mystic. The bridge, an icon of American ambition and ingenuity, contrasts with the fragility of human life unfolding beneath it. What follows is a scene both comedic and tragic: “And the people slipping on ice in the street, twice, twice, two different people came over, goin to work, so earnest and tryful”. The repetition of twice amplifies the absurdity, as if the universe is staging a slapstick lesson before his eyes. These figures are earnest and tryful, words that emphasize both their innocence and their struggle—a struggle that, to Kerouac, symbolizes all of humanity.

As the poem unfolds, the trivial event takes on cosmic significance. “And I cried I cried”—a childlike, doubled declaration of grief. The falls of these strangers are not just accidents; they resonate as symbols of human frailty, of the continuous cycle of striving and failing. The poet is overwhelmed not just by the moment but by what it evokes: “That's when you taught me tears, Ah God in the morning, Ah Thee”. His cry is not only emotional but spiritual—he sees in this small tragedy the hand of God, the unfiltered truth of existence, and the weight of his own history.

The poem moves into a kind of ancestral invocation: “And me leaning on the lamppost wiping eyes, eyes, nobody's known I'd cried or woulda cared anyway but O I saw my father and my grandfather's mother and the long lines of chairs and tear-sitters and dead”. The loneliness of his grief is palpable—no one notices, no one cares, yet in that moment, he sees generations of suffering before him. The phrase “long lines of chairs and tear-sitters and dead” suggests funeral processions, wakes, the endless cycle of loss that stretches through time. This sudden flood of memory collapses past and present, the individual and the collective, reinforcing the spiritual weight of his tears.

Then, in a characteristic Beat turn, the poem shifts from sorrow to surrender: “Ah me, I knew God You had better plans than that”. This is not despair but recognition, an acceptance that suffering, no matter how persistent, is not the final truth. He acknowledges a divine order beyond human comprehension, an unseen hand that moves events with an intelligence beyond his own.

The closing lines become a plea: “So whatever plan you have for me / Splitter of majesty / Make it short brief / Make it snappy / bring me home to the Eternal Mother today”. There is both reverence and impatience here—he calls God the Splitter of majesty, a phrase suggesting both the power to divide and the power to create awe. He does not ask for answers or explanations; he only asks that his fate be swift, that he be brought home to the Eternal Mother. This invocation of the Eternal Mother recalls Kerouac’s Catholic and Buddhist influences—the Divine Feminine, the maternal aspect of the universe that receives the soul in death.

Yet, even in this plea for release, he remains at God’s service: “At your service anyway, (and until)”. The parenthetical “(and until)” leaves the poem open-ended, as if acknowledging that surrender is not absolute, that he will continue to move through the world—watching, crying, praying—until the moment of return.

"Hymn" is a brief but powerful encapsulation of Kerouac’s spiritual vision. It moves fluidly between the mundane and the mystical, from a street in Brooklyn to the cosmic embrace of the Divine. It is a moment of Beat revelation—raw, unfiltered, deeply human, and wholly surrendered to the mystery of existence.

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