Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Louise Gluck's "Aubade" presents a captivating meditation on the nature of perception, time, and the self. Unlike the traditional aubade that usually portrays lovers parting at dawn, Gluck's version is an introspection that takes the reader through the oscillating scales of the speaker's world. The term 'aubade' usually implies the arrival of dawn, a new beginning, and in this poem, dawn comes in the form of an altered perception, a newfound understanding of the world's nuances.

The opening lines, "The world was very large. Then / the world was small," signify the shifting nature of the speaker's perception. The world's size changes in proportion to the individual's mental state. The idea that the world could "fit in a brain" reveals an intense internalization of experience. It is "all / interior space," isolated and impermeable, but still susceptible to the passage of time, described as the "tragic dimension."

Time in this poem is both an intruder and a savior. While the speaker took time "very seriously," its seeping in is described as tragic, a paradox that reflects the complexities of human emotion. We want time to cure us, but we are also aware that it erodes and changes us, often in ways we cannot predict.

The austere environment described-"A room with a chair, a window"-suggests that the simplicity of the setting sharpens focus. The world is whole in "its emptiness," implying that it is the absence, the not-having, the not-knowing, that brings everything into a coherent whole. This concept is mirrored by the emotional focal point at "the center of the self," which is a grief so profound the speaker fears they cannot survive it.

The poem then describes an aesthetic and emotional shift from emptiness to substance, from "white" to "panels / of gold where the light struck." The transition seems to happen spontaneously, driven by the world's disdain for "potential" and its urge for "substance." The world craves definition, solidity-qualities that can be experienced sensually. This is where the poem intertwines with the theme of time again: "time stirring, time / crying to be touched, to be / palpable."

In the end, the speaker returns to a childlike state of not knowing "what the riches were made of." The lack of knowledge doesn't negate the sense of richness; instead, it enhances it. It reminds us that sometimes the beauty of experience lies in its mystery, in its resistance to being fully understood.

Gluck's "Aubade" does not offer us the comfort of resolution, but it does offer the beauty of complexity. It tells us that our emotional and perceptual landscapes are ever-changing, subject to the shifting lights and shadows of time and internal life. And in that fluidity, there is not just grief or emptiness, but also the possibility of richness, of "gold where the light struck," even if its substance remains ever elusive.

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