Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

William Stanley Merwin's "Fourth Psalm: The Cerements" is a profound and haunting meditation on the themes of loss, absence, and the impermanence of human efforts to preserve or contain what is cherished. Through a series of vivid, surreal images, the poem explores the futility of trying to hold onto someone or something that ultimately eludes capture, despite the most tender or well-intentioned attempts.

The poem begins with the image of a woman crafting a shelter for someone, perhaps a loved one, using intangible materials: "She made him a roof with her hands / from his own voice she wove the walls to stop the wind." This opening suggests a deep intimacy and care, as the woman constructs a space using elements of the person himself—his voice, dreams, and eyes. The creation is almost magical, with windows "painted" by dreams, and doors made of mirrors reflecting his eyes. However, the recurring motif of absence begins here: "but when she opened it he was gone."

This pattern repeats throughout the poem, as the woman creates various enclosures—each symbolic and deeply personal—to protect, preserve, or contain the person. She makes "a cage of wishes," "a net of consents," and "a box of some sweet wood," each crafted with care, attention to his memories, and shared emotions. Yet, each time she opens these creations, she finds that he has vanished: "gone the vision gone the witness," "gone the asking," "gone the cry the laughter."

The repetition of the word "gone" emphasizes the inevitability of loss, no matter how much effort is made to preserve the presence of the beloved or the memories attached to them. The woman's efforts are tender and poignant, but they are ultimately futile. Each creation—whether it be a physical object like a bed or a symbolic one like a net of consents—fails to contain or hold onto the person, who continually escapes into absence.

The poem broadens its scope towards the end, moving from the personal to the collective with the lines: "They made him a fence of names / each with its story like his own teeth / they laid claim to his ears / but he had others." Here, "they" could represent society, family, or the broader community attempting to define, categorize, or remember the individual through names and stories. Yet even these efforts are insufficient: "when they opened the echoes / even the echoes he had gone." The echoes, symbols of memory and legacy, are empty; the person has left no trace that can be captured or held.

The final stanza intensifies the sense of loss with the image of "an ark of the one tree," referencing the biblical Ark of Noah, meant to preserve life through a cataclysm. But even this sacred, all-encompassing creation fails: "before the rain came he was gone." The poem concludes with a litany of absences: "laws of the hands gone / night of the veins gone / gone the beating in the temples / and every face in the sky." These lines suggest a total erasure, where even the most essential and universal aspects of existence—laws, time, life, and the celestial—are rendered meaningless in the face of this ultimate disappearance.

"Fourth Psalm: The Cerements" reflects on the inevitable and painful reality that no matter how much we try to preserve what we love or remember, everything is subject to loss. The title, "Cerements," which refers to the cloths used to wrap the dead, adds another layer of meaning, suggesting that these efforts to preserve are akin to preparing for burial, an acknowledgment of death and the finality of absence.

Merwin's poem is a meditation on the ephemeral nature of life and the ultimate futility of trying to hold onto what is destined to be lost. It invites readers to reflect on their own experiences of loss and the ways in which they, too, might attempt to capture or preserve what is inevitably fleeting. The poem's power lies in its stark portrayal of the tension between the human desire to preserve and the inescapable reality of loss, leaving us with a sense of the profound mystery and sorrow that accompanies the passage of time.

Copyright (c) 2025 PoetryExplorer

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!

Other Poems of Interest...