Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Stephane Mallarme's "Bestowal of the Poem" is a complex tapestry of symbols and imagery that delves into the act of poetic creation and its subsequent effects on both the creator and the audience. The poem opens dramatically with the speaker presenting "the infant of Idumaean night," a phrase replete with Biblical and mythical allusions. Idumaea is an ancient land linked with Esau in the Bible, and its nighttime "infant" could symbolize the dark offspring of poetic endeavor. This grim birth metaphor sets the tone for a poem that addresses the creative act's ambiguities and challenges.

The infant is described as "Black, bleeding and pale at the wing, distraught," an image that invokes the inherent struggle and discord involved in artistic creation. The process is neither easy nor purely joyous; instead, it leaves the creator "distraught," echoing the Romantic notion that artistic creation often comes from a place of inner turmoil.

"Dawn threw herself on the lamp, angelic," suggests the catalytic moment of inspiration. Dawn, a symbol of new beginnings, is juxtaposed with the "lamp," a tool of human endeavor. Yet this interaction between natural light and man-made light occurs "through panes which alas are still dreary and chilled," reminding us that the act of creation doesn't necessarily dispel life's inherent challenges or complexities. This sentiment is further reinforced when the poem states, "The solitude trembled, blue and sterile." Even in the act of creating, the artist remains within a realm of solitude, a space that is "blue and sterile," a phrase evoking both melancholy and barrenness.

Mallarmé takes another dark turn with, "O the cradle received a horrible birth," but juxtaposes it with "the innocence of your cold feet and your daughter." This line could be read as a representation of the duality inherent in artistic creation-it is simultaneously "horrible" and "innocent," capable of evoking contrasting feelings or realities.

The poem concludes with a haunting question about the artistic creation's ultimate destiny. It questions whether the artist will "press with withered finger the nipple / Whence the woman in sibylline whiteness flows / Towards the lips which the air or the azure maid starves?" These lines can be interpreted as an allegory for the transfer of artistic nourishment, asking whether the artist can really sustain his creation-or himself-given the "withered" state of his own existence.

"Bestowal of the Poem" is a dense and cryptic work that confronts the reader with the complexities and contradictions of artistic creation. It resonates with Mallarmé's own philosophy on poetry, which he saw as a spiritual endeavor imbued with great responsibility and laden with existential weight. The poem remains a profound meditation on the solitary and conflicted nature of artistic creation, where the sublime and the terrible are inextricably intertwined.

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