Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In "Midsummer: 42," Derek Walcott presents a hauntingly vivid portrayal of a frozen, snow-covered Chicago, drawing stark comparisons between the city's urban landscape and historical moments of human suffering and conflict. Through evocative imagery, Walcott explores themes of isolation, decay, and the persistent presence of imperial power. The poem interweaves elements of contemporary life with historical echoes, creating a chilling reflection on the ways in which history and present-day realities converge in moments of frozen stillness.

The opening line, "Chicago's avenues, as white as Poland," immediately establishes a sense of stark contrast. Chicago, a modern American city, is compared to Poland, specifically referencing the country's harsh winters and, by implication, its history of suffering under oppressive regimes. The whiteness of the snow evokes both purity and desolation, suggesting that the snow blankets the city like a shroud, silencing the usual noise and activity. The phrase "a blizzard of heavenly coke hushes the ghettos" introduces a dual metaphor: the snow, likened to "heavenly coke," not only covers the city but also suppresses the vibrancy and life of the marginalized communities, represented by the ghettos. The snow becomes a force of erasure, rendering the city’s most vulnerable inhabitants invisible.

Walcott continues with the image of a "scratched sky flickers like a TV set," conveying a sense of disconnection and malfunction, as if the sky itself is faltering, much like a broken television. This image suggests that the world above is not only distant but also fragmented, a source of static and interference rather than clarity or comfort. The taxi crawling "slow as the glacial prose of historians" adds a sense of inevitability and slow passage, as if history, in its recounting, moves forward with cold precision, indifferent to the suffering of individuals.

The poem’s imagery shifts toward a more specific historical allusion, as Walcott compares the frozen cars and cloaked figures on Michigan Avenue to the "frozen" faces on a Warsaw street. This comparison evokes the brutal winters of Poland during World War II, conjuring images of people struggling to survive under Nazi occupation. The parallel between the black derelicts huddling over a fire in Chicago and those suffering in Warsaw creates a shared sense of human vulnerability across time and geography, linking the two places through their respective experiences of hardship.

The reference to "the punctured sky" being "needled by rockets that keep both Empires high" brings the reader into the realm of Cold War politics. The image of rockets in the sky suggests the omnipresence of global powers, locked in a perpetual state of competition and dominance, with ordinary people caught beneath their shadow. The mention of "both Empires" hints at the United States and the Soviet Union, whose tensions during the Cold War shaped the geopolitical landscape. The rockets, like needles, penetrate the sky, emphasizing the fragile balance between these powers and the potential for destruction that hovers over the scene.

Walcott introduces a prophetic tone with the line "It will be both ice and fire," alluding to Robert Frost’s poem "Fire and Ice," which explores the potential end of the world through the forces of desire (fire) and hatred (ice). The phrase suggests that the end, whether through war or environmental catastrophe, will come through a combination of extreme opposites. The "sibyl's crystal" offers a vision of the future, where the globe is "shaken with ash" and the world is reduced to a child’s friction, a small and trivial gesture in the face of such overwhelming destruction.

The imagery becomes even more apocalyptic as Walcott describes the snow-covered streets of Chicago with cars "like dead horses, their muzzles foaming with ice." The vehicles, symbols of modernity and progress, are rendered lifeless, overtaken by the elements. The scene is further accentuated by the dispatcher's voice on the cab's dashboard, warning of more snow, as if reinforcing the inevitability of nature’s power to disrupt human civilization.

The poem then shifts geographically and temporally, as the television set in the cab lights up with a scene of a "snow slope with pines as shaggy as the manes of barbarian ponies." This image evokes a distant, perhaps mythological, past, where Mongols on horseback traverse frozen landscapes. The description of the Mongol "in yak's skin, teeth broken as dice," grinning at the cities below him, underscores the barbaric, primal nature of this historical figure, a stark contrast to the fragile, frozen cities of modernity. The Mongol, emblematic of a different kind of empire, turns away from the silent, frozen cities as if indifferent to their fate, further emphasizing the cyclical nature of human history—where one empire falls, another rises.

In "Midsummer: 42," Derek Walcott masterfully intertwines the present-day setting of Chicago with historical and mythological references, creating a layered meditation on power, decay, and human suffering. The blizzard, both a literal and metaphorical force, unites these disparate elements, suggesting that the cold indifference of nature, history, and empire ultimately governs the lives of individuals. Walcott’s vivid imagery and thematic depth offer a chilling reflection on the fragility of human existence in the face of larger, uncontrollable forces.

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