Webster was much possessed by death
And saw the skull beneath the skin;
And breastless creatures under ground
Leaned backward with a lipless grin.
Daffodil bulbs instead of balls
Stared from the sockets of the eyes!
He knew that thought clings round dead limbs
Tightening its lusts and luxuries.
Donne, I suppose, was such another
Who found no substitute for sense,
To seize and clutch and penetrate;
Expert beyond experience,
He knew the anguish of the marrow
The ague of the skeleton;
No contact possible to flesh
Allayed the fever of the bone.
. . . . .
Grishkin is nice: her Russian eye
Is underlined for emphasis;
Uncorseted, her friendly bust
Gives promise of pneumatic bliss.
The couched Brazilian jaguar
Compels the scampering marmoset
With subtle effluence of cat;
Grishkin has a maisonnette;
The sleek Brazilian jaguar
Does not in its arboreal gloom
Distil so rank a feline smell
As Grishkin in a drawing-room.
And even the Abstract Entities
Circumambulate her charm;
But our lot crawls between dry ribs
To keep our metaphysics warm.
I had to do a little research for this one. There are 4 characters, Webster and Donne are poets from a couple 100 years ago. That makes more sense when reading because they can live on through their words and writing (ironically I didn't know them but now they are whispers of existences to me now). Both men were possessed by death. Webster saw it everywhere, and Donne was feeling it, dying.
ReplyDeleteGrishkin is interesting. She is compelling, charming, blissful, and sexy. Not possessed by death. Connected to the jaguar. Unlike the dead poets, she is written about in the present tense. Another note, griskin is a lean piece of pork. Is she a piece of meat?
Lots of sexual references. Does Grishkin live on because of her beauty and sexuality? Or is she mortal? Will someone write about her?
The last two lines the reader and narrator join. We become the lot that "crawls between ribs/ to keep our metaphysics warm." I cannot quite make sense of these lines. Are we left to the decomposers that crawl around in our insides when we die? Is that our whispers because we are not beautiful like Grishkin or poets like Webster and Donne? Or are we?
This is a tough poem, good luck!
I went on your explanation of Webster and Donne, thank you!
ReplyDeleteImagery- "daffodils as eyes"
Reminded me a lot of The Bell Jar...where Plath sees suicide in all possibilities.
Looked up words:
Pneumatic- air, spirit
Marmoset- little species of monkey
Maisonette- apartment
Arboreal- living in or related to trees
Ague- malaria
Allayed- put at ease
After rereading with these definitions in mind, the possibilities of meaning multiplied...why speak on Greshkin at all? Are the two men finding hope in a specific women who is easing the pain of death with sexual pleasures? Why the reference to catlike and monkeylike? Does the rib reference the female part of the creation story? Seaparation of male and female...does one need the other for eternity? Is the women, mortal, stuck without the giving away of herself to men? Does a man, or at least Webster or Donne, need that sexual pleasure or coming together with a woman to become an Abstract Entity?
So many thoughts....a little Da Vinci Code with the female referencing of life?
Those are some great questions and connections! They make the poem even more interesting. I had to look those words up too, plus a couple others.
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