Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Charles Olson’s "End of the World / Is the Turn-About" reflects his complex vision of endings as cyclical beginnings, a theme anchored in mythological and industrial imagery. The poem’s concept of “Turn-About” suggests a moment of reversal rather than a definitive end, where reaching the limit compels one to turn back upon oneself. Olson’s use of Prometheus, the mythic figure punished for granting fire to humanity, introduces a tension between human advancement and the natural order, as Prometheus suffers eternal torment at the hands of the vulture, which represents nature’s retribution or endurance beyond human creations.

Olson connects Prometheus’s punishment to Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and forge, who embodies human ingenuity but also the destructive power of industrialization. In describing Vulcan’s creations as “machines,” Olson implies that human inventions—no matter how remarkable—are ultimately limited and lifeless compared to natural cycles. By associating Vulcan’s artificiality with Prometheus’s punishment, Olson presents a cautionary view of human progress: the pursuit of mastery over nature may lead to cyclical suffering, a “Turn-About” in which human creations are ultimately self-defeating.

The repeated line, “After you go backward,” suggests a process of self-reflection or regression required to reach the “limit of Ocean,” symbolizing a boundary of human understanding or the edge of the known world. This “limit” implies both an existential boundary and a moment of introspection—a turning point where one realizes that progress alone may not bring fulfillment. Olson seems to suggest that after humanity has stretched the limits of exploration and invention, there is a need to reconsider what has been left behind or overlooked, perhaps the natural or spiritual elements that modernity tends to disregard.

In "End of the World / Is the Turn-About," Olson critiques the unrestrained pursuit of technological progress, warning that such efforts, while grand in scope, may lack deeper significance or vitality. His poem suggests that the “end” is not an annihilation but a reckoning, a point at which humanity must re-evaluate its path, accept limitations, and possibly rediscover its place within natural cycles rather than in opposition to them. This “Turn-About” is a paradoxical ending that calls for a return to origins—a recognition that true understanding requires moving beyond the artificial constructs of human achievement to confront fundamental truths of existence.

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