Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"Oscar Wilde" by Elsa Barker is a biting critique of the famous Irish poet and playwright. The poem is filled with strong imagery and intense emotion, reflecting a perspective that sees Wilde's works as corrupt and immoral.

Elsa Barker (1869 - August 31, 1954) was an American novelist, short-story writer, poet, and spiritualist. Born in Leicester, Vermont, Barker attended the University of Vermont and worked as a teacher and journalist before turning to writing full time.

Barker's language is heavy and charged, calling Wilde the "Laureate of corruption" and comparing him to a nightingale singing of decay from a dark cypress branch. She invokes the image of the canker in the rosebud, a symbol of hidden disease or corruption. There's a sense of Wilde's art as something beautiful but fundamentally tainted, and his spirit as having taken a vow to a "strange god" to desecrate the earth.

The poem also associates Wilde with Lucifer, the fallen angel, a symbol that highlights his talent and stature but also his fall from grace. The reference to Lucifer's fall adds a mythological dimension to the poem, suggesting that Wilde's artistic and personal transgressions are of cosmic significance.

Barker's view of Wilde is clearly negative, reflecting a moral outrage at his lifestyle and his art. She writes of loathing him with an "instinctive dread," likening him to a graveyard or a scar. This visceral reaction is juxtaposed with the idea that even God wept for Lucifer's fall, suggesting a tragic dimension to Wilde's story but ultimately affirming his place among the "second dead."

It's worth noting that this poem reflects a particular viewpoint and does not encompass the full complexity of Wilde's life and work. While some contemporary readers might have shared Barker's view, Wilde's wit, literary genius, and explorations of aestheticism and individuality have also won him many admirers. His legacy remains contentious, and this poem captures a moment in the ongoing debate over his place in literary and cultural history.

The poem also indirectly speaks to the broader cultural anxieties of the time, particularly the tension between traditional Victorian morality and the new aesthetic and decadent movements that Wilde was associated with. Barker's condemnation of Wilde can be seen as a reaction to these broader cultural shifts and a defense of more conventional moral values.

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