Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Cleopatra Mathis’s "August Arrival" captures a rare and radiant moment of joy and reconciliation, weaving themes of life, death, memory, and renewal into a narrative that transcends personal grief. The poem, suffused with a luminous happiness, situates itself in the idyllic backdrop of midsummer, creating a vivid counterpoint to the speaker’s reflections on loss and resurrection.

At its heart, the poem celebrates an ephemeral moment of completeness: “I am just this once at the center of it.” This declaration anchors the speaker in a present unburdened by sorrow, a moment of reprieve where the beauty of life outweighs its inevitable sorrows. The sensory imagery of summer—flowers, milk, fruit, and northern mountains—grounds this joy in the physical world, emphasizing its immediacy and abundance.

The invocation of Lazarus introduces a profound parallel between the biblical miracle of resurrection and the speaker’s reimagining of her brother’s presence. The comparison draws on the deeply human desire to hold onto those lost, imagining them returned whole and radiant. The sisters’ ecstatic reaction to Lazarus mirrors the speaker’s own joy in conjuring her brother’s memory, free from the shadow of his death. The narrative suggests that moments of deep connection, such as the one depicted here, carry a power akin to resurrection—an affirmation of life that lingers beyond loss.

Mathis intricately layers the poem with historical and emotional resonances, threading the speaker’s joy with the ache of remembrance. The phrase “this morning I see you without seeing your awful death” acknowledges the persistent weight of grief while simultaneously asserting a deliberate choice to focus on life. The act of celebration—“we give our promises to the living”—becomes an act of defiance against despair, a way to honor the past without succumbing to its hold.

The poem’s temporal fluidity underscores the interconnectedness of past and present. The memory of the mother’s anguish during the brother’s birth—“the night our mother told the doctor she wanted to die instead of get you born”—juxtaposes the miraculous arrival of life with the profound cost it sometimes exacts. The speaker’s reflections on this history, however, do not dwell in sorrow; instead, they transform into a kind of healing affirmation: “This time you come in the day’s bright honor.”

The poem’s concluding lines affirm the power of belief and communal resilience. The imagery of the past lying down “like a peridot to dispel the terrors of night” suggests a symbolic closing of old wounds. The mention of the brother’s unburied body—“for the road your body takes, still unburied”—acknowledges the unfinished nature of grief while simultaneously transcending it through the act of remembrance and celebration. The speaker and her family “rise, unburdened,” united in their shared conviction that their brother remains alive in memory and spirit.

“August Arrival” is ultimately a hymn to life’s resilience and the redemptive power of love and memory. Mathis crafts a poignant narrative that embraces the ordinary and the extraordinary, the burdens of history, and the profound beauty of fleeting moments. The poem’s delicate balance of joy and grief offers a deeply human meditation on how we carry, reconcile, and transform the weight of our losses into something enduring and affirming.

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