Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

John Wieners’ untitled poem is a searing exploration of devotion, sacrifice, and the yearning for liberation, all framed through a deeply personal and poignant lens. The poem is intimate yet universal, balancing the sacred with the profane, and juxtaposing the quiet suffering of a sister’s religious devotion with the speaker’s urgent call for release and transformation.

The poem opens with a striking image of the sister’s long-standing piety: “My sister has saved her body for years / knees hard on prayers.” The physical toll of her devotion—“her elbows shriveled from cold pillows”—evokes both tenderness and a stark sense of endurance. This act of saving her body through prayer is framed as a quiet, almost ascetic resistance to the external world, suggesting a life defined by restraint and faith. Wieners conveys her fragility and perseverance in equal measure, highlighting the tension between spiritual aspiration and the wear of worldly existence.

The speaker then addresses a divine figure, possibly Christ, with both reverence and reproach: “And you, you have let her lie in man-pride, she has not asked / only in prayers, Christ, a skinny voice you have left her lying / soft in her pillow litanies to crucified arms.” The repetition of “you” creates an accusatory tone, as though the divine has failed to offer the sister the solace or answers she seeks. Her devotion, expressed through “pillow litanies” and prayers, is juxtaposed with the crucifixion, a symbol of suffering and redemption. Yet, here, redemption feels distant, and her prayers echo unanswered in the void.

The poem shifts dramatically in its second half, turning from the sister’s quiet suffering to the speaker’s impassioned plea for release and transformation: “Take me like breakfast / take my hard prize / bring me on the river to the hands of lovers.” The imagery becomes more visceral and immediate, contrasting the sister’s restrained devotion with the speaker’s desire for a complete, physical act of surrender. The phrase “hard prize” suggests a sense of personal cost or struggle, as if the speaker’s offering is both a gift and a burden.

The river, likely the Charles River in Boston, becomes a powerful symbol of flow, transformation, and escape. “Toss it over the Charles / go away on lights out to sea / be mingled in the current of a complete act.” The act of tossing something into the river—a gesture of release—represents a longing to let go of burdens, to dissolve into something greater, to find unity and peace in the inexorable movement of water toward the sea. The river here serves as a metaphor for transcendence, where personal pain and struggle are carried away by a larger, natural force.

The closing lines—“Get off that hill bring good nails / let her know her blood freed of our city / where only skin is passed out on the street”—carry a powerful emotional weight. The reference to “good nails” alludes to the crucifixion, but here it is reframed as an act of liberation rather than suffering. The speaker implores for freedom—not only for the sister but for everyone trapped in the city’s superficial and materialistic existence, where “only skin is passed out on the street.” This critique of urban life, reduced to surface appearances and transactional relationships, contrasts with the spiritual and transformative yearning that permeates the poem.

At its core, the poem grapples with themes of sacrifice, redemption, and the search for meaning in a world that often feels indifferent to suffering. The sister’s devotion, the speaker’s plea for release, and the imagery of the river and city all intertwine to create a meditation on the tension between the sacred and the profane, between endurance and liberation. Wieners’ language is both raw and lyrical, capturing the depths of human longing and the complex interplay of faith, love, and despair.

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