Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In "Time of the Missile," George Oppen grapples with the modern human condition at a time seemingly teetering on the edge of destruction. The poem, with its focus on the implications of human actions and technological advancements, provides a rich terrain for exploring themes of danger, love, and existential despair.

The poem opens with a memory-of New York's Hudson River glinting between warehouses, the difficulty of approaching the water, and a ship with a "steel wall." The image is industrial and distant, invoking the unnatural divide between nature and human-made structures. Here, the "tons in the water" and "Width" suggest that human impact, particularly industrialization, has a heavy, irrevocable presence.

The poem then leaps from the physical to the metaphysical: "The hand for holding, / Legs for walking, / The eye sees!" This sudden invocation of human capabilities for love, movement, and perception is tinged with irony and caution. The exclamation mark almost seems to mock these abilities, given that they have led us to the very brink of annihilation. The eye that sees also "floods in on us from here to Jersey tangled in the grey bright air!" suggesting that our capacities for observation and knowledge come with a heavy responsibility that we are failing to uphold.

"Become the realm of nations," Oppen declares, alluding to the interconnected world where one nation's actions can influence another's fate. At this juncture, the poet introduces a plea or lament: "My love, my love, / We are endangered / Totally at last." This is the emotional climax of the poem, where personal love is pitted against the existential dangers that loom over humanity. Love here is not just romantic but universal-the love for life, for humanity, for the Earth itself.

"Look / Anywhere to the sight's limit: space / Which is viviparous," he continues. The word "viviparous," referring to bringing forth live young, serves as a paradox in this context. While life is being born, it is also endangered by "space," the infinite realm of possibilities and also, quite possibly, a reference to the race for space exploration and the potential for cosmic weapons.

Finally, Oppen concludes with a sobering reminder that this "space" is the "Place of the mind / And eye," but it can also "destroy us, / Re-arrange itself, assert / Its own stone chain reaction." The chain reaction can be seen as a metaphor for the potential destruction that could be unleashed by human technology and arrogance, such as nuclear missiles.

In "Time of the Missile," George Oppen brilliantly layers personal anxieties over a landscape of global concerns. The poem serves as a haunting meditation on the price of progress and the vulnerabilities it exposes, culminating in a vision that is both bleak and provocatively open-ended. We are left to ponder whether humanity can make ethical and wise use of its enormous powers-or if, in the end, the world will "re-arrange itself" without us.

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