Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Gail Mazur’s "To RTSL, 1985" is a poignant and layered elegy, reflecting on the life, death, and enduring influence of a mentor or friend—RTSL, whose identity remains enigmatic yet emotionally vivid. The poem weaves together personal memory, philosophical questioning, and social critique, creating a richly textured meditation on mortality, legacy, and the tensions between belief and disbelief. Through its conversational tone and evocative imagery, the poem captures the speaker’s attempt to reconcile the loss of a significant figure with the complexities of their shared intellectual and emotional world.

The poem opens with an intimate recollection: “I’m drained,” the last words the speaker remembers RTSL saying, spoken in the midst of a literary event. This context—a “crowd at Harvard lingering for a little piece of you”—immediately situates RTSL as a figure of intellectual and cultural significance, someone whose presence inspired admiration and demand. The phrase “I’m drained” is fraught with layered meanings, resonating as both a literal expression of exhaustion and a foreshadowing of RTSL’s death four months later. The image of the crowd, clamoring for connection, highlights the tension between the public demands placed on RTSL and the private struggles they carried.

The poem then transitions to a funeral scene, where the speaker grapples with feelings of alienation and inadequacy in the face of collective mourning. The afterlife, as promised by the priest’s homily, is dismissed as “stuffy heavenbound platitudes,” a concept the speaker cannot fully embrace. This skepticism is sharpened by the speaker’s own Jewish identity, which precludes belief in the Christian notions of Heaven or Hell: “no everlasting Paradise for us. / Or fear of Hell.” This cultural and spiritual dissonance deepens the poem’s exploration of mortality, framing it as a universal mystery that transcends religious boundaries while highlighting the limitations of prescribed narratives about death.

The speaker’s encounter with a “crazy redhead derelict” during the funeral adds a surreal and disconcerting layer to the scene. The redhead’s intrusion with a “leathery Book of Common Prayer” evokes a sense of chaotic discomfort, mirroring the speaker’s internal unease. The speaker’s reaction—choosing not to “hiss or beg him off”—reflects a resignation to the complexities of grief and their own perceived inadequacies in the moment. This encounter becomes a metaphor for the disjointed, often unresolvable emotions that accompany loss.

RTSL’s voice and values are vividly recalled in the poem’s central lines: “You said you wanted words / meat-hooked from the living steer.” This visceral metaphor captures RTSL’s demand for authenticity and rawness in language, a commitment to truth that contrasts sharply with the polished, conventional rhetoric of the priest’s sermon. The speaker imagines RTSL singing Amazing Grace with fervor, suggesting a capacity for spiritual expression that transcended dogma and embraced the power of communal experience.

The poem also reflects on the passage of time and the changing world RTSL left behind. The mention of “students” who are “no less callow or careerist now” than in the past underscores the enduring challenges of education and mentorship, as well as the speaker’s awareness of generational cycles. These students, with their “dented sensibilities,” might have amused or frustrated RTSL, but they represent a continuation of the work and ideals that RTSL embodied.

The closing lines imagine RTSL as he might have been, had he lived beyond the “Yellow Cab ride” that symbolically marks the end of his journey. The description—“nearly seventy, more frizzled, / your generation’s humble chivalrous relentless pride”—is both affectionate and mournful, capturing the enduring presence of RTSL’s spirit in the speaker’s memory. The phrase “humble chivalrous relentless pride” encapsulates the paradoxes of RTSL’s character: a blend of humility and strength, idealism and resilience.

Mazur’s language throughout the poem is conversational yet deeply evocative, seamlessly blending the personal and the philosophical. The imagery—meat-hooked words, a yellow cab, the leathery Book of Common Prayer—creates a vivid tapestry that anchors the speaker’s reflections in tangible moments while inviting broader contemplation. The poem’s tone balances skepticism with reverence, capturing the speaker’s struggle to honor RTSL’s memory while grappling with their own unresolved feelings about life, death, and legacy.

Ultimately, "To RTSL, 1985" is a meditation on loss and the enduring impact of those we admire and learn from. Through its richly detailed narrative and introspective voice, the poem invites readers to consider the complexities of mourning, the ways in which we carry the influence of others, and the questions of belief and meaning that linger long after they are gone. Mazur’s elegy resonates as a testament to the power of memory and the enduring connections that transcend time and mortality.

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