Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Louise Bogan's "Elders" offers an intricate meditation on the inexorable cycles of nature and the weight of time, articulated through the motif of elderberry bushes. The poem is rife with vivid imagery and metaphor, providing a rich tapestry of impressions that invite the reader to explore themes of transience, fertility, and the passage of time.

The poem opens with a vivid tableau: "At night the moon shakes the bright dice of the water." This is a metaphor imbued with the concept of chance and inevitability. The moon's light, refracted through water, takes on the appearance of tossed dice, an image that effectively captures the random yet repetitive nature of natural cycles. This is followed by a description of elder flowers being "light as broken snow upon the bush," an image that delicately juxtaposes fragility with beauty. These elders "repeat the circle of the moon," indicating the cyclical nature of their existence, which mirrors lunar phases.

The second stanza moves us forward "Within the month" to a time when the flowers have turned to "Black fruit," a symbol of maturity and perhaps the decay that eventually follows. The phrase "There is no harvest" delivers a significant thematic punch. In a setting where cycles of growth usually culminate in harvest, the absence of it implies a kind of futility or pointlessness. The elderberries are "Ripe for the mouths of chance lovers, / Or birds," underscoring the notion that nature's processes are indifferent to human intention or desire. Whether consumed by accidental passersby or birds, the berries fulfill their role in the cycle of life.

The final stanza confronts the reader with the "quick cleavage of season and season," a phrase loaded with implications. "Cleavage" suggests both division and connection, encapsulating the contradictory nature of time, which separates even as it links together cycles of life. The elders are depicted as sagging "over the powdery road-bank," worn down by the weight of the seasons they have endured. The closing lines are particularly poignant: "As though they bore, and it were too much, / The seed of the year beyond the year." Here, the poem culminates in an image of almost unbearable burden-the weight of time, the enormity of the cycles that the elders, as eternal witnesses, must endure.

Bogan's poem also speaks to broader cultural and historical perspectives on the passage of time and the role of nature in human life. Written in the 20th century, it taps into an existential sense of life's transient yet repetitive nature, themes that were gaining prominence in a world that had witnessed substantial social and technological change but still grappled with eternal questions about existence and purpose.

In sum, "Elders" serves as a finely wrought study of nature's cycles, offering both a celebration and a lament for the continuous wheel of time. Louise Bogan achieves a sense of universal resonance by grounding her exploration in specific natural elements, crafting a poem that feels at once intimate and expansive. Through its intricate web of imagery and metaphor, the poem captures the beauty and burden of perpetual cycles, leaving the reader with a poignant awareness of the transient yet enduring nature of life itself.

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