Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In "Au Jardin," Ezra Pound crafts a lyrical dialogue between two distant figures that serves as an exploration of love, longing, and the paradoxical nature of life itself. The setting of the poem-a garden at night, framed by "amber lattices" and "cobalt night"-provides a dream-like atmosphere that contrasts sharply with the grounded, often bleak insights offered by the speaker. This juxtaposition between setting and content encapsulates the central tension of the poem: the clash between idealized love and the gritty realities of life.

The poem opens with a call to a figure "away high there," presumably a woman leaning out from a window or balcony. The speaker is "below amid the pine trees," a spatial divide that symbolizes the emotional or existential distance between them. While the woman is framed by "amber lattices," evoking an aura of warmth and luxury, the speaker is amid "the little pine trees," a more humble, earthbound space. The divide underscores the theme of unreachable love and the tension between what is longed for and what is attainable.

The poem then introduces the motif of the jester walking in the garden, a phrase that serves multiple roles. At face value, it could be seen as a frivolous or whimsical note, but it could also be interpreted as a commentary on the folly or complexity of love. The jester, traditionally a figure of mockery and wisdom, embodies the paradox of love: something that is at once foolish and deeply insightful.

The speaker confesses that all he has to offer is songs, adding a touch of the tragic to the poem. His declaration that he is "set wide upon the world's ways" indicates that his vocation-to proclaim that life is somehow a "gay thing"-is his dominant commitment. But this jubilant mission is undermined by the following lines that caution about the inevitability of sorrow: "you never string two days upon one wire / But there'll come sorrow of it."

The speaker admits to having loved once, a love so ethereal and fleeting it is described as being "over beyond the moon." The object of his past affection "danced like a pink moth in the shrubbery," an image filled with transient beauty. Moths, like jesters, are complex symbols: they are both attracted to light and often destroy themselves because of it-a fitting metaphor for the destructive potential of love.

The poem concludes with a vague assurance that "it'll all come right, / O' Sundays," an equivocal statement that could either denote a faith in future happiness or a grim resignation that only promises temporary respite. Once again, the jester's walk in the garden is mentioned, tying the poem's thematic elements together in a single, enigmatic image.

Overall, "Au Jardin" encapsulates the essence of human longing, the complexities of love, and the stark realities that often lie beneath life's more beautiful illusions. It serves as a compact yet expansive exploration of some of the most perennial questions that plague human existence.

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