Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In "Communion," César Vallejo weaves a tapestry of vivid images and metaphors, each saturated with religious, existential, and even cosmic significance. He presents a portrait of "Regal Beauty," an entity that embodies the intertwining of life and death, past and future, and mortal and divine.

From the very first line, the speaker addresses this "Regal Beauty" whose "veins are ferments / of my ancient nonbeing and of the black / champagne of my living!" This dualism-of non-being and living-suggests that the "Regal Beauty" is an existential necessity, a way of making sense of the paradox of existence. The "black champagne" evokes an intoxicating, yet dark vitality, merging joy and sorrow, much as champagne is a drink associated with celebration but colored darkly, at least metaphorically here.

The poem employs religious imagery like "crimsoned Jordan" and "two dying births of a cross," which brings to mind Biblical stories and concepts. The Jordan River is both a place of baptism and crossing into the Promised Land; the cross is a symbol of sacrifice and redemption. The "Regal Beauty" is akin to a savior, yet is also deeply connected to the speaker's soul.

Vallejo incorporates cosmic imagery with "their chaste Pleiades of light," referencing a star cluster often mentioned in literature and mythology. The "Pleiades" here seem to symbolize purity and heavenly beauty, yet they're anchored in the fleshly arms of the "Regal Beauty," bringing the celestial down to a palpable reality.

The lines "Your arms yield the thirst for the infinite" extend the existential quandary. Here, "thirst for the infinite" speaks to an insatiable human longing for something beyond this finite world, something eternal and unchanging. The arms of the "Regal Beauty" offer both a pathway and a mirage to this longing.

The poem closes with the speaker acknowledging the ultimate futility of this existential quest. The "Regal Beauty's" feet are described as "two tears / I stifled in my descent from the Spirit, / on a Palm Sunday I entered the World." This final image is poignant, a mix of regret and resignation, as the speaker laments his entry into a mortal realm "forever distant from Bethlehem"-the birthplace of Christ and a symbol of divine possibility.

Though Vallejo's poem is replete with religious and mythological references, it's not merely an exercise in erudition. These elements act as bridges between the ineffable and the known, the sacred and the profane. Vallejo presents a "Regal Beauty" who is at once savior and siren, a figure who personifies the complexities and contradictions of existence itself.

"Communion" serves as an intriguing mosaic of the eternal quest for understanding, for union with something greater than oneself. It explores the dialectic of life and death, the corporeal and the ethereal, the human and the divine-ultimately painting a picture of an existence both beautiful and maddeningly elusive.

POEM TEXT:

Regal Beauty! Your veins are ferments

of my ancient nonbeing and of the black

champagne of my living!

Your hair is the unknown rootlet

of the tree of my vine.

Your hair is the strand of a splendid

mitre I lost!

Your body is the frothing tumult

of a crimsoned Jordan;

and it undulates, like a beatific lash

that humiliated the serpent of evil!

Your arms yield the thirst for the infinite,

with their chaste Pleiades of light,

as two white redemptive roads,

two dying births of a cross.

And they are formed in the unconquered blood

of my unattainable blue!

Your feet are two heraldic larks

eternally arriving from my yesterday!

Regal Beauty! Your feet are the two tears

I stifled in my descent from the Spirit,

on a Palm Sunday I entered the World,

now forever distant from Bethlehem!

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