Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Derek Walcott’s "Midsummer: 35" intricately explores themes of displacement, history, and the cyclical nature of both time and place. The poem draws on the imagery of a journey through Wales and England, weaving in references to medieval literature and the natural landscape to reflect on personal and collective memory. The narrative shifts between the external environment and the speaker’s internal musings, blending past and present, the mythic and the mundane.

The poem opens with the tactile, almost visceral description of "Mud. Clods. The sucking heel of the rain-flinger." These lines immediately establish a sense of harshness and physicality, grounding the reader in the earthiness of the landscape. The "sucking heel" suggests the difficulty of navigating through mud, evoking a struggle with both the elements and movement. The "rain-flinger" personifies the wind and rain as forces that toss the environment into disarray, lending the scene a mythic quality, as if nature itself were a formidable character in this journey.

The speaker continues to describe the gusts of rain "veering like the sails / of dragon-beaked vessels dipping to Avalon / and mist," drawing a connection between the present moment and the legendary past. Avalon, the mythical island from Arthurian legend, symbolizes a place of magic and mystery. The "dragon-beaked vessels" reinforce the medieval imagery, suggesting that the rain and landscape are part of a larger, timeless world of myth and legend. As the speaker drives through the "skittering ridges of Wales," the landscape itself seems imbued with historical weight and significance, as if the journey were not only across physical terrain but also through layers of time and meaning.

The figure of "Langland’s Ploughman" appears "on the rain-seeded glass," a reference to William Langland’s "Piers Plowman", a medieval allegorical poem about the common man’s spiritual journey through life. The Ploughman, a symbol of humble labor and moral integrity, serves as a guide or touchstone for the speaker as he navigates the rain-soaked landscape. The image of the ploughman’s "sliding heels" parallels the movement of the car’s tires on the wet road, suggesting that both the speaker and the Ploughman are engaged in a journey through difficult and uncertain terrain. The "splintered puddles" dripping from the roadside grass emphasize the fragmented, transient nature of the landscape, as well as the fleetingness of the moment.

Walcott introduces a ghostly figure: "Once, in the drizzle, a crouched, clay-covered ghost / rose in his pivot," evoking the idea of a laborer rising from the fields, perhaps another reference to the Ploughman or to the countless anonymous workers who have toiled in these lands. The "turning disk of the fields" and the "ploughed stanzas" suggest that the land itself is like a poem, each furrow a line that speaks of history and loss. The phrase "a freshness lost" signals a lament for something that has passed, whether it be youth, innocence, or a simpler time in history. This loss is tied to the land, as the fields, once full of life and potential, now sing of what has been taken from them.

As the journey continues, the speaker notes the beginning of villages and the crossing into England. Here, "the fields, not their names, were the same," highlighting the continuity of the landscape despite the artificial borders between countries. The sameness of the fields suggests that, despite national or political divisions, the land itself remains constant, its history and significance transcending human constructs. The speaker and his companions find a café in the "thin drizzle" and settle into a "pew / of red leatherette," a mundane and modern contrast to the mythic and historical imagery that has dominated the poem thus far.

The sun begins to make an appearance, described as "carefully picking the lint from things." This gentle, almost maternal image of the sun restoring clarity and order to the world contrasts with the earlier chaos of the rain. The sun "brightened like a sign, the world was new," suggesting a moment of renewal and possibility. However, this moment of brightness is tempered by the lingering presence of history: "the cairns, the castled hillocks, the stony kings / were scabbarded in sleep." These ancient markers of the past, whether cairns (stone piles used as memorials), castles, or historical figures, are dormant for now, but their presence in the landscape is a reminder that the past is never truly gone.

The speaker reflects on his own sense of displacement or "dispossession," wondering why the "crash of chivalry in a kitchen sink" triggers this feeling. The blending of the grand and the domestic—the "crash of chivalry" with the mundane task of washing dishes—underscores the speaker’s sense of alienation. Even in this everyday scene, the weight of history and the ideals of the past seem to haunt him, making him feel out of place. The speaker’s physical sensations—"from calf to flinging wrist, my veins ache in a knot"—suggest a deep, embodied sense of discomfort or unease, as though the weight of history is manifesting itself physically.

The poem ends with the speaker rubbing mist from the window to look out at the "helmets of wet cars in the parking lot." The comparison of the cars to helmets evokes the imagery of knights or soldiers, further reinforcing the connection between the present and the medieval past. The mist, like the historical weight that permeates the poem, obscures the view, but the act of wiping it away suggests a desire to see clearly, to understand one’s place in this complex, layered world.

In "Midsummer: 35," Walcott masterfully intertwines the personal, the historical, and the mythical to create a meditation on place, identity, and the passage of time. The journey through the rain-soaked landscape of Wales and England becomes a metaphor for the speaker’s own internal journey, as he grapples with feelings of displacement and the weight of history. Through vivid imagery and allusions to medieval literature and myth, the poem explores how the past continues to shape the present, leaving its marks on both the land and the self.

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