Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Ron Padgett’s "With Lee Remick at Midnight" is a dreamlike, fragmented journey through time, space, and consciousness, blending the mundane with the surreal in his signature whimsical style. Padgett, a key figure in the New York School of poets, often intertwines everyday experiences with highbrow cultural references and playful absurdity. In this poem, he captures the fleeting nature of thought, the fluidity of memory, and the strange, often humorous ways in which disparate ideas collide in the mind, particularly in those liminal spaces between wakefulness and sleep.

The poem opens with an image that immediately sets a surreal, almost cinematic tone: “The lights shoot off the windows of the Plaza and into the sky where they become stars.” This transformation of city lights into celestial bodies blurs the boundaries between the urban and the cosmic, suggesting that the everyday and the extraordinary are not as separate as they might seem. The Plaza here could refer to the famous Plaza Hotel in New York City, a symbol of urban sophistication, but the lights' ascent into the sky hints at a broader, more universal perspective. By transforming a simple reflection into a cosmic event, Padgett invites the reader into a world where the ordinary is infused with wonder.

The poem’s title introduces the figure of Lee Remick, an acclaimed American actress known for her performances in films such as "Days of Wine and Roses" and "Anatomy of a Murder." Remick often portrayed complex, emotionally rich characters, and her inclusion in the title adds an air of classic Hollywood glamour and emotional depth to the poem. While Remick does not appear directly in the narrative, her presence hovers over the poem, suggesting a midnight reverie inspired by her iconic image—a blending of cinematic fantasy and personal reflection that mirrors the poem’s oscillation between reality and imagination.

From New York, the poem leaps geographically and conceptually to “the Piaya de Toros in Mexico, D.F.” (likely a playful misspelling of Plaza de Toros, a bullfighting arena). This sudden shift from the stars over New York to the stars shining over Mexico City illustrates Padgett’s characteristic associative thinking, where connections are made not through logical progression but through the free flow of thought. The mention of bullfighting, a spectacle rooted in tradition and ritual, contrasts with the modern urbanity of New York, adding another layer of cultural juxtaposition.

Padgett then shifts into a more humorous, almost non-sequitur observation: “We have a Washington, D.C. We have such a thing as alternating current.” This abrupt transition from geography to electrical engineering exemplifies the poem’s playful tone, highlighting how the mind can jump from one unrelated subject to another. The explanation of alternating current—“The current flows in one direction for a while / And then in the opposite, alternating rapidly thus”—could be read as a metaphor for the flow of thoughts in the poem itself, moving back and forth between ideas, times, and places without settling in one spot for too long.

The poem then becomes more introspective and personal as Padgett describes his own movements: “I get up out of my chair and walk to one end of the room.” This simple, physical action grounds the reader momentarily before the surreal creeps back in. At the end of the room, he sees “a little statue of a friend, Tony Towle,” who is another poet associated with the New York School. The appearance of a friend as a statue introduces an element of the uncanny, blending familiarity with strangeness. As “Hat, coat, muffler, and gloves appear on the statue,” the inanimate figure takes on life-like characteristics, while the environment becomes more surreal as “the door closes overhead and the sky is black.” This imagery evokes a dreamscape where everyday objects and people transform in unexpected ways, emphasizing the fluid boundary between reality and imagination.

The next shift in the poem marks a transition into a more dreamlike, semi-conscious state: “My hand reaches for the alarm clock in a dawn / Muddle-headed wha? and I settle into another level / Of being.” The fragmented syntax and the use of “wha?” capture the disorientation of waking up, that blurred space where the remnants of dreams and the demands of reality coexist. The phrase “another level of being” suggests that the poem itself operates across multiple planes of consciousness, oscillating between waking life, memory, and dream.

This muddled state of mind leads to a sudden burst of intellectual ambition: “I want to read Marx, The Voyage of the Beagle, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Thomas Jefferson.” This list of canonical thinkers—from Karl Marx’s political theory to Charles Darwin’s scientific exploration, Rousseau’s philosophy, and Jefferson’s political ideals—reflects a lofty desire for knowledge and enlightenment. Yet, this ambition is immediately undercut by the mundane realities of daily life: “get out / Of bed and meet Bob by noon to have / Mousse au chocolat chez Schrafft’s.” The transition from reading great thinkers to meeting a friend for dessert at Schrafft’s, a once-popular chain of restaurants and candy stores, illustrates Padgett’s playful juxtaposition of the highbrow and the ordinary, reinforcing the poem’s theme of the fluid interplay between lofty aspirations and everyday pleasures.

The poem continues to blend the serious with the whimsical as Padgett describes returning home “in time to hear Fred Flintstone / Give out his mysterious ‘Yabba-dabba-dooo!’ wahoo.” The inclusion of Fred Flintstone, a beloved cartoon character from "The Flintstones," injects a sense of nostalgic humor into the narrative. The juxtaposition of this cartoon catchphrase with earlier references to Marx and Rousseau highlights the absurdity and randomness of modern life, where high culture and pop culture coexist in our daily routines and mental landscapes.

The poem concludes with a surreal, almost childlike image: “As evening settles down in its glorious space / And I shoot down the slide and up, and out.” The image of shooting down a slide evokes a sense of playfulness and freedom, suggesting that the speaker is embracing the unpredictable, whimsical nature of his thoughts and experiences. The upward motion—“and up, and out”—suggests a release or transcendence, as if the speaker is leaving behind the constraints of structured thought and entering a more liberated, imaginative state.

Structurally, "With Lee Remick at Midnight" flows like a stream of consciousness, with no clear stanzas or traditional narrative arc. The poem moves fluidly from one idea to the next, mimicking the associative processes of the mind, particularly in those half-awake, half-asleep moments when reality blends with memory and fantasy. Padgett’s language is straightforward yet rich with imagery and unexpected juxtapositions, allowing the reader to follow the speaker’s thought process while also being surprised by the twists and turns it takes.

In "With Lee Remick at Midnight," Padgett invites readers into a world where the boundaries between the ordinary and the extraordinary, the serious and the silly, are constantly shifting. Through his playful use of language and surreal imagery, he captures the fluid nature of thought and experience, reminding us that life is a complex, often absurd mixture of ideas, memories, and sensations. Whether contemplating Marx, sharing dessert with a friend, or listening to a cartoon character’s catchphrase, Padgett finds poetry in the randomness of existence, celebrating the beauty and humor in the unexpected connections that shape our lives.

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