Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Muriel Rukeyser’s “Third Elegy: The Fear of Form” examines the tension between structure and chaos, between artistic creation and the forces that seek to stifle it. The poem critiques the “tyranny of method” and explores the role of artists, revolutionaries, and visionaries in a world marked by rigid constraints and violent upheavals.

The opening lines evoke a dramatic scene where the "outrageous smile" and "mobs skidding" up to a "formal staircase" symbolize the chaotic clash between the controlled environment of museums and the raw, uncontrollable masses. The mob’s reaction—mouths agape at the sight of a sunset or perhaps a symbol of change—reveals the disruption of order and the intrusion of the everyday into spaces traditionally reserved for high art.

Rukeyser identifies three colors—blackness, obscurity, and bravado—and three moments—wit-play, movement, and wartime—that define the art of this chaotic age. The art described here is visceral and direct: "a wall daubed like a face, / a penis or finger dipped in a red pigment." This raw expression contrasts sharply with the institutional praise for sentimental art, as critics favor the familiar over the challenging.

The poem references a “car full of Communists” disrupting the surrealist house, illustrating the clash between revolutionary fervor and artistic expression. The call for “new combinations” and the testing of existence through these combinations underscores the need for art that engages with the reality of the times.

Rukeyser poses a choice between different artistic and ideological paths: the earnest self-education of Lincoln versus the aesthetic detachment of the impresario, or the passionate activism of the general’s nephew. This dichotomy highlights the varied responses to the pressures of the age, whether through individual improvement, aesthetic escapism, or militant activism.

The poem moves to a reflection on children’s art versus asylum art, challenging the notion that formal simplicity is inherently youthful or pure. Rukeyser emphasizes that true creativity involves cutting through superficial constraints to reach a deeper, blazing truth.

In a powerful metaphor, the poem describes a man "wearing the world," urging others to "come out into the open." This call to action reflects the poem’s central theme: the necessity of confronting and integrating the complexities of life, rather than retreating into rigid forms or empty abstractions.

The poem's chorus, “Your witwork works, your artwork shatters, die,” underscores the destructive power of art that fails to engage meaningfully with reality. The challenge is to rise from the confines of the past and present, embracing a dynamic, living creativity.

Rukeyser addresses the ghosts of the past—artistic, political, and personal—who must be confronted and integrated into the present. The poem references Picasso, the swastikas, and the horrors of war, weaving together the legacy of modernism with the brutal realities of the 20th century.

The choice between “capitals with their tarnished countesses” and “clean acceptable Copenhagen” or a “pure high monument” in Minnesota reflects the tension between decadent old orders and new, possibly puritanical, ideals. This tension is central to the poem’s exploration of form and content, tradition and innovation.

The poem culminates in a call for fusion and transformation. Rukeyser imagines a sphere—a symbol of unity and completeness—being placed at the focal point of creation. This act of placing the sphere represents the integration of disparate elements into a coherent whole.

In the final lines, the poet stands at the intersection of midnight corners, wearing “the coat and the shadow of the coat,” symbolizing the merging of self and shadow, light and dark. The mind, sailing over a scene, allows light to arrive, making visible the world “with all its signatures.”

Muriel Rukeyser’s “Third Elegy: The Fear of Form” is a complex meditation on the role of the artist in a world of rigid structures and violent change. It challenges the reader to embrace the chaos, to fuse disparate elements into new forms, and to engage with the world in all its brutal reality and transcendent potential. The poem is both a critique of complacency and a call to action, urging a dynamic, integrated approach to life and art.

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