Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Charles Olson’s "Discrete Gloss" is a dense, challenging meditation on the relationship between external perceptions and internal realities, exploring how we see, interpret, and connect with the world around us. The poem juxtaposes elements of the natural world, human activity, and symbolic numbers, especially the number nine, to suggest that all perception is inherently subjective yet profoundly interconnected.

The title, "Discrete Gloss," itself hints at Olson’s approach. “Discrete” suggests individual, separate entities, while “Gloss” can mean both a superficial shine or interpretation and an explanatory note. Olson appears to be probing the ways in which individuals might place a “gloss” on reality, viewing external experiences as though they are contained and understandable, when in fact, these moments resist simplification.

The poem begins with three motifs: “The tide, the number 9 and creation.” These elements allude to cycles, transformations, and a sense of cosmic order, setting the stage for Olson’s examination of what is within and what lies beyond human comprehension. The sea, representing nature’s power and rhythm, is constantly changing and reshaping, like the human psyche itself. The number nine may carry spiritual and mystical significance, hinting at completion and gestation—a cycle ready to renew itself or come to fruition. Creation, then, becomes a dance between the cyclical nature of life and the human impulse to comprehend, define, and categorize it.

Olson’s depiction of a “three-time city,” possibly an allusion to Gloucester (the city he often references and where he lived), signifies a place layered with history, existing simultaneously in the past, present, and an imagined future. The imagery of a church and slaughterhouse coexisting “under palms alongside the mud-flats” suggests a duality between the sacred and profane, life and death—natural cycles mirrored in human constructions.

Throughout the poem, Olson explores the idea that what we observe externally is a mere reflection of the inner world, raising the question of how much our perceptions are shaped by our inner life rather than by reality itself. The poet’s gaze settles on a scene in a bus: “this man letting a fat whore hug him in the bus as it goes counter to the eastering earth.” Here, Olson introduces a blunt and visceral image, one that feels earthy and confrontational. This embrace in the bus becomes a microcosm for the human tendency to seek comfort, connection, and even meaning in fleeting, often mundane moments, while the earth continues its relentless journey.

In the following lines, Olson directs the reader to question whether they understand what their eye truly “focuses on.” This wandering gaze leads the speaker to witness activities on a boat, where men forgo a weekend to “clean the gurry.” The earthy, gritty reality of labor contrasts sharply with traditional notions of leisure and respite. The image of laborers cleaning a boat in preparation for the next cycle of work reinforces the idea of life as a continuous struggle against forces beyond our control, much like the tidal patterns that shape the coastline.

In a series of rhetorical questions—“Who loves without an object, who dreams without an incubus, who fears without cause?”—Olson underscores the idea that human experiences are inextricably bound to tangible realities and fears. To feel love, desire, or fear without an external stimulus would be impossible; human experience is defined through relationships and interactions. Olson’s assertion that “affections are not the conquerors” points to the notion that it is not love or tenderness alone that defines existence, but the fierceness of our internal struggles and desires.

As the poem progresses, Olson critiques the notion of abstraction in human culture, challenging the notion of transcendental or purely “abstract” ideas. He dismisses the idealized “human birds with wings” created by artists like Giotto as irrelevant to the raw physicality of existence. Instead, Olson urges a return to direct, sensory engagement with the world, celebrating the “precisions” of nature and the visceral experience of being human.

The poem’s close returns to imagery of nature and mortality, focusing on a scene “on this beach made by the tide which passed and dragged away old guts.” Olson’s language here is both blunt and unsentimental, bringing together the primal forces of life and death. The reference to “nine madereros” (likely woodworkers or loggers) and a politician “cut and stoned for dead” on the beach highlights human violence and mortality, perhaps as cyclical as the natural processes that shape the land. The presence of these figures on the beach ties human history and personal action to the unending forces of nature, suggesting that all lives, actions, and even deaths are part of a larger, indifferent cycle.

Olson’s reflections in "Discrete Gloss" ultimately confront the limits of human understanding and the futility of trying to capture or separate oneself from the elemental forces of existence. The repeated imagery of the sea, tides, and natural processes throughout the poem connects human life to these larger, often incomprehensible patterns. Olson’s emphasis on the physical, on visceral details, and on the limitations of human perception serve as a call to humility, reminding the reader that our understanding of the world is, at best, a partial “gloss” on something far more vast and powerful.

In this complex tapestry of images, "Discrete Gloss" grapples with existence, perception, and the human tendency to seek order within a chaotic, indifferent universe, challenging readers to consider the limits of their understanding and the interconnection of the internal and external worlds.

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