Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In "Return," George Oppen confronts complex themes such as identity, belonging, time, and the interplay between the individual and the collective experience. From the outset, the poem grapples with a sense of conflicting realities: what we perceive versus what actually is, the tactile against the metaphysical, the present moment against the weight of history.

The poem starts with a statement attributed to a king, who identifies the ground as "This Earth" and "This England," offering a dual perspective that echoes the tensions between individual experience and the collective consciousness. The poem then swiftly transitions into a modern setting: a "Sunday paradise of parkway," where family cars flow in an almost idyllic stream. However, this paradise is fraught with internal discord: "We cannot reconcile ourselves. No one is reconciled."

Oppen introduces a metaphor of the Sequoia seed and its growth into a tree, presenting it as a marvel of nature that forces "Earth thru itself into bark, wood, the green / Needles of a redwood." This seed represents potential and the inexorable power of natural processes-of life itself-to shape the earth's crust. However, the shock is "metaphysical." It forces us to confront the reality that the life we are part of is also part of a larger, uncaring system.

This metaphysical realization is amplified as Oppen contrasts the transience of human experience with the ongoing, indifferent processes of nature: "This is not our time, not what we mean, it is a time / Passing..." There's a subtle but insistent lamentation of "desertion," of "betrayal," as if the fleeting nature of human existence betrays our deep-seated yearning for permanence and meaning.

The poem also gives a snapshot of different lives, such as Petra beating a wash pan out of her window, gathering a crowd "like a rescue." The reference to Coughlin and the Silver Shirts brings in another layer of history, touching upon political extremism. It reminds the reader that history is not always the "ceremony of innocence," but often a theater of conflict, corruption, and loss.

Towards the end, the poem returns to the theme of decay and renewal, but this time in the context of the urban landscape. Whole buildings are "Razed, whole blocks / Of a city gone / Among old streets." Oppen seems to suggest that just as nature has its cycles of growth and decay, so do civilizations. We are but transient passengers in this vast, unfeeling universe, clinging to each other for meaning and comfort: "Mary, / Mary, we turn to the children / As they will turn to the children / Wanting so much to have created happiness."

"Return" does not offer easy resolutions but dwells in the uncomfortable spaces of paradox, questioning, and ambiguity. The poem captures the tension between the human craving for permanence and the impermanence of all things, including our own lives and civilizations. Through Oppen's lens, the poem itself becomes a sort of Sequoia seed, asking us to confront the metaphysical disquiet that comes with the stark but also wondrous realities of our existence.

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