Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Charles Olson?s "Moon Is the Number 18" is a complex and evocative poem that weaves together mythic, symbolic, and emotional imagery to explore themes of grief, isolation, and the mystical interplay between life, death, and the cosmos. The moon, as both a celestial body and a symbolic figure, anchors the poem?s meditative inquiry into cycles of creation and destruction, illumination and obscurity.

The poem opens with an enigmatic declaration: “is a monstrance, the blue dogs bay, and the son sits, grieving.” A monstrance, a liturgical vessel used in Christian rituals to display the Eucharist, evokes sacred revelation, framing the moon as an object of contemplation and veneration. Simultaneously, it is a source of sorrow, with the son grieving under its gaze. The "blue dogs," baying and pawing at the moon, symbolize primal forces of instinct and longing, creatures caught in a restless cycle of reaction and response to the celestial sphere. Their behavior reflects the speaker?s grief, creating a mirroring effect between human and animal emotions.

The moon itself takes on multiple identities: “is a grinning god, is the mouth of, is the dripping moon.” Here, Olson layers the moon with contradictory qualities—smiling and ominous, open and consuming, fecund and decaying. Its dripping quality suggests both fertility (dew or water) and violence (blood), aligning the moon with the forces of both life and death. This duality reinforces its role as a central symbol of cosmic flux and uncertainty.

In the tower, the cat preens, and motion becomes “a crab.” These creatures, like the moon and the blue dogs, are suffused with symbolic significance. The cat, often associated with mystery, independence, and the nocturnal, contrasts with the crab’s lateral, indirect movements. Both embody watchfulness and ambiguity, aligning with the poem’s atmosphere of quiet observation and restrained action. The crab’s sidelong motion reflects the circuitous and elusive nature of truth and understanding in the poem’s world.

The speaker aligns himself with these creatures and their helplessness: “there is nothing he can do but what they do, watch the face of waters, and fire.” The act of watching becomes a central motif, signifying a kind of passive engagement with the overwhelming forces of nature and existence. The "face of waters, and fire" suggests elemental forces beyond human control, emphasizing the speaker?s vulnerability and smallness in the face of cosmic phenomena.

The imagery intensifies as “the blue dogs paw, lick the droppings, dew or blood, whatever results are.” This moment evokes both desperation and inevitability, as the creatures scavenge for meaning or sustenance amid the remnants of life and death. Their rueful howling mirrors the speaker’s grief as he confronts the impermanence of life and the haunting absence of what "was her."

In the poem’s second half, Olson turns toward the tower, a recurring image of solitude and contemplation. The moon’s “triumph” over this space is tinged with irony: though it presides over all creation, it is described as “dirty” and hollow—“The moon has no air.” This stark description underscores the moon’s alienness and lifelessness, contrasting with the vibrant yet fraught world it illuminates.

Olson’s focus on “number, image, sortilege” as forces to be resisted or endured suggests a critique of reductionism and the human impulse to impose order on the chaotic. The moon, as number 18, is tied to systems of numerology and divination, yet Olson resists these systems, favoring a more immediate and visceral engagement with the ineffable.

The poem concludes with an assertion of sound and conjecture as central to the speaker’s experience. In the tower, amid the cat and the crab, “sound is, is, his conjecture.” This final line affirms the primacy of perception and interpretation in navigating a world where definitive truths remain elusive. Sound—whether the howling of dogs, the movement of wind, or the speaker’s own thoughts—becomes both the medium and the proof of existence.

"Moon Is the Number 18" is a meditation on the interplay of cosmic and earthly forces, grief and resilience, creation and destruction. Through its dense and layered imagery, Olson constructs a universe where all things are interconnected yet elusive, leaving the speaker—and the reader—to grapple with the profound mysteries of existence. The poem’s cyclical structure, mirroring the orbit of the moon and the rhythms of life, reinforces its themes of flux and recurrence, offering a vision of the world as both wondrous and unknowable.

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