Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"Looking Into History" by Richard Wilbur is a profound meditation on history, memory, and the intersection between the past and the present. The poem is divided into three parts, each lending a new layer to the subject matter. It opens with the poet contemplating a photograph captured by Mathew Brady, known for his images of the American Civil War. This starting point serves as an entryway into complex themes such as collective memory, the haunting legacies of war, and the intrinsic ties between land and identity.

The photograph evokes soldiers "fixed" in time, almost fossilized "in their amber atmosphere." Yet, Wilbur strives to infuse life into them, comparing his efforts to "orphaned Hamlet working up his grief." The soldiers in the photograph represent not just individuals but also archetypes, conduits to a broader historical and ancestral consciousness. The term "amber atmosphere" is rich in evocative imagery-amber being a substance that preserves relics of the past, and "atmosphere" suggesting a specific historical climate that's almost tactile. The poet knows he can never fully understand the past encapsulated in the photograph, yet he identifies with it through a glimpse of sycamore trees, bringing an immediacy to the historical setting.

In the second part, Wilbur's scope widens to examine the transformative nature of history and memory. He invokes mythical landscapes-from Birnam Wood in Shakespeare's "Macbeth" to the banks of the Simois River in the "Iliad"-emphasizing that history is fluid, ever-changing like the sea. It's a resonant metaphor that captures how history consumes events, preserving some and eroding others, offering "views of its confounded graves" to new eyes that look into it. While the past is mutable, it also has moments where it resurfaces with a "deathless cry," much like the soldiers in the Brady photograph.

The third part of the poem shifts from the external to the internal, echoing an existential dialogue. It suggests that true understanding of history and oneself comes when one confronts the present. "The dead give no command / And shall not find their voice / Till they be mustered by / Some present fatal choice." In other words, the past remains voiceless until it is activated or questioned by the decisions we make today.

Ultimately, Wilbur argues for a dynamic understanding of history, one that is not static but is continually refashioned by the choices of the living. He advocates for embracing "all impostures," or the various roles and identities one assumes through life. By doing so, one can "Father the waiting past," forming a continuous, living link with history. The poet concludes with the image of a "self-established tree" that draws "all waters toward / Its live formality," a symbol that unifies the various threads of the poem-the individual, the collective, the land, and history-into a single, living entity.

In "Looking Into History," Wilbur delves into the complex relationships we have with the past, questioning how we interpret it and how it shapes us. By using photographs, landscapes, and myths as prisms, he reflects on the fluidity of history and the responsibility of the present to both remember and renew it. The poem serves as a philosophical guide, teaching us to navigate the shadowy terrains of history with critical awareness and emotional depth.

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