Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In Charles Marie Rene Leconte de Lisle's "The elves," the reader encounters an enigmatic blend of enchantment and foreboding, captured through the recurring image of "dancing elves in the moonlight." Crowned with pastoral herbs-marjoram, clover, and thyme-the elves serve as emblematic of nature's allure, echoing themes that populate much of Leconte de Lisle's work. However, the presence of these mystical beings carries with it a sense of underlying menace that resonates throughout the poem.

At first glance, the young Chevalier appears as the quintessential knight of romance tales, bedecked in gold spurs and traversing the forest on a quest for his love. His path crosses that of the elves, led by their Queen, who offers the promise of eternal magic and allure. In doing so, the poem engages in a thematic exploration of the tensions between earthly duties and otherworldly temptations. This duality manifests itself as a struggle between the earthly love the Chevalier feels for his lady and the ethereal allure of the elfin Queen.

The stakes are laid bare when the Queen offers her "magical ring" and her "robe spun of beams of the bright Milky Way." These are not mere gifts but symbols of cosmic power and otherworldly beauty. It is significant that the Chevalier resists this temptation by drawing his sword. His refusal is steeped in his human obligations-his betrothal to his lady who "looks for the dawn and her spouse to appear." In doing so, the poem reveals its heart: a moral that contrasts the permanence of human commitments against the ephemeral, albeit seductive, pleasures of magical realms.

However, the poem twists this moral ground through the haunting turn of events that unfolds when the Chevalier is confronted by a spectral figure, ultimately revealed to be his lady, now deceased. This chilling revelation subverts the notion that earthly matters have greater permanence and casts a dark shadow over the Chevalier's human-centered ethics. His final moments, marked by his "ruddy cheeks whitening," are those of existential horror. He falls dead "as if stricken by lightning," an end that seems almost a divine judgment for his dismissal of otherworldly powers.

The haunting repetition of the elves' dance, emphasized at the beginning and end of each stanza, serves as a reminder that nature's allure and dangers persist, indifferent to human dramas. This cyclical narrative structure reflects the inevitability of nature's forces, whether they manifest as enchanting elves or as foreboding apparitions.

"The elves" delves into the complexities of attraction and choice, balancing the eternal dance of mystical beings with the transient dilemmas of human emotion. Through its contrasting themes and unsettling climax, the poem captures the constant push and pull between the human world and the realm beyond, between the everyday and the ethereal. It leaves the reader with a poignant understanding of how closely beauty and terror, love and death, can exist in both our world and in the worlds that lie tantalizingly beyond our grasp

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!

Other Poems of Interest...