Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Mina Loy’s "Perlun" is a portrait of a luminous yet marginalized youth—a figure both golden and broken, wandering through the extremes of human experience. Loy presents Perlun as a paradox, a "whipper snapper child of the sun," simultaneously imbued with radiance and subjected to the harsh forces of the world. Through a fragmented yet striking series of images, the poem explores themes of beauty, intuition, survival, and the uneasy intersections of privilege and destitution. The title, Perlun, an unusual name, suggests something rare and delicate, possibly derived from perle (French for pearl), reinforcing the idea of a gleaming yet fragile being.

The opening line immediately establishes Perlun as a creature of energy and impudence: "the whipper snapper child of the sun." The phrase "whipper snapper" conveys youthful arrogance, a mischievous confidence that is both daring and naive. To be a "child of the sun" suggests a being shaped by brightness, an inheritor of light, as if Perlun carries a mythic or elemental quality. Yet, almost immediately, this radiance is tempered by adversity: "His pert blonde spirit scoured by the Scandinavian Boreas." The reference to Boreas—the North Wind of Greek mythology—suggests that Perlun, though golden, is not untouched by hardship. The "Scandinavian Boreas" implies both the literal cold of the north and a metaphoric harshness, a cleansing or scourging of spirit through exposure to the elements. This sets up a contrast: Perlun is both a radiant youth and a survivor of brutal forces.

Loy then presents a surreal physical description: "His head an adolescent oval ostrich egg." The image is arresting—his head, not merely smooth or delicate, is compared to an ostrich egg, something both fragile and oddly oversized. The choice of an ostrich egg, the largest of all bird eggs, suggests something precious yet precarious, emphasizing both his youth and a sense of vulnerability hidden beneath his confidence.

The next lines—"The victorious silly beauty of his face awakens to his instincts"—position Perlun as a figure of intuitive triumph. His beauty is "silly," not conventional or measured, but something spontaneous, uncalculated. This phrase encapsulates Perlun’s charm: he is not a deliberate conqueror, but one whose beauty and energy make him effortlessly magnetic. The phrase "awakens to his instincts" reinforces his natural, unmediated way of being in the world—he is led by impulse, unburdened by conventional logic or restraint.

The description of Perlun as "A vivacious knick-knack tipped with gold" further underscores his dual nature—he is vibrant, decorative, small, a kind of trinket, yet one "tipped with gold," suggesting both value and embellishment. The phrase "he puts the world to the test of intuition" affirms that Perlun’s primary means of navigating life is not through reason or planning but through spontaneous, instinctual engagement. He moves through the world like a question, measuring its worth by his reactions rather than by external standards.

Loy then presents him as a transient figure, living on the fringes of society: "Smiling from ear to ear / Living from other hands to mouth." His perpetual smile reinforces his exuberance, but the next line undercuts this lightness—he survives by relying on others, receiving sustenance secondhand rather than securing it for himself. This suggests a life of dependency, not in a desperate way, but as an extension of his fluid, intuitive existence.

The following lines introduce Perlun as a figure of radical compassion: "Holding in immaculate arms the syphilitic sailor / on his avoided death bunk / or the movie vamp among the muffled shadows of the shrubberies." Here, Perlun becomes an almost saint-like figure, unafraid to embrace the diseased and the discarded. The "immaculate arms" emphasize his purity—not in a moralistic sense, but in his willingness to hold and comfort those whom others shun. His touch is not tainted by their suffering. The "syphilitic sailor" is a man on the brink of death, yet even in this grim setting, the phrase "avoided death bunk" suggests a slight defiance of fate—perhaps Perlun’s presence brings solace or momentary relief. On the other hand, "the movie vamp among the muffled shadows of the shrubberies" situates him within a different sphere of marginality—the world of fleeting, cinematic allure and hidden, nighttime liaisons. Perlun moves effortlessly between extremes: deathbeds and romantic trysts, sickness and seduction.

The line "Picking lemons in Los Angeles broke" offers a moment of stark realism. This is Perlun not as a glowing, mythic figure but as a laborer, engaging in the mundane and exploitative work of fruit-picking, likely for meager pay. The brevity of this line punctures the poem’s earlier flights of imagery, grounding Perlun in economic hardship.

The next section expands his experience: "The education of ‘Prince Fils à Papa.’" The phrase "Fils à Papa" (French for "Daddy’s Boy") is ironic—Perlun is not a privileged heir but a wandering youth, learning lessons not in luxury but in hardship. His education consists of witnessing "How low men die / How women love—" suggesting that his greatest lessons are in suffering and passion, in the brutal realities of mortality and the intensity of human attachment.

The mention of "The rituals of Dempsey and Carpentier" introduces another cultural reference—Jack Dempsey and Georges Carpentier were famous boxers, their 1921 match being one of the most significant fights of the era. This reference places Perlun within the realm of spectacle and violence, where physical struggle and public performance merge. In a sense, Perlun, like a boxer, is engaged in a battle for survival, performing resilience for an indifferent audience.

The poem concludes with Perlun’s own voice: "PERLUN asks / ‘Do these flappers of the millionaires / think I’m a doll for anyone to pat?’" This question, defiant yet bemused, speaks to his precarious position—he is admired, perhaps even desired, but not necessarily respected. The "flappers of the millionaires" represent a world of indulgence, jazz-age decadence, and fleeting pleasure, contrasting sharply with Perlun’s instinct-driven, precarious existence. His resistance to being treated as an object ("a doll for anyone to pat") underscores his agency—despite his transient nature, he refuses to be passively possessed or consumed by the wealthy elite.

"Perlun" is a portrait of an ephemeral, luminous outsider—a figure who moves between love and death, glamour and squalor, privilege and poverty. Loy captures both the fleeting beauty of his existence and the precariousness that defines it. Perlun is at once golden and discarded, a trinket and a prophet, a survivor and a spectacle. Through her signature blend of surreal imagery, irony, and raw social observation, Loy crafts a vision of a life lived at the edges, where intuition, experience, and defiance shape an identity that refuses to be reduced to mere ornamentation.

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