Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

The sonnet "Gerard de Nerval" by Andrew Lang serves as an elegy to the enigmatic French Romantic poet, celebrating his quest for the ethereal while lamenting the earthly chains that confined him. Lang presents Nerval as a "light and sacred soul," implying an inherent goodness and a near-spiritual search for the sublime. At the same time, the mention of Nerval's "prisons" acknowledges the darker aspects of his life, including his bouts with mental illness and societal judgment, eventually leading to his tragic suicide.

The first quatrain lays the ground for the complex duality of Nerval's existence: "Ah, untamed, / Ah, light and sacred soul!-none holds thee now." The repetition of "Ah" serves as an exclamation of both admiration and sorrow, a testament to the poet's untamed spirit and the tragic arc that his life followed. "No wall, no bar, no body of flesh, but thou / Art free and happy in the lands unnamed," speaks to the ultimate liberation of Nerval's soul from earthly confines, perhaps alluding to a spiritual realm or an afterlife where his soul could finally experience the freedom it so deeply yearned for.

The second quatrain delves deeper into Nerval's quest for higher understanding and artistic transcendence: "Within whose gates, on weary wings and maimed, / Thou still wouldst bear that mystic golden bough." The "mystic golden bough" is a richly symbolic reference, evoking the idea of a passageway to other realms. It invokes both Classical and mythological resonances, as the golden bough is an attribute of the Sibyl, a prophetess in ancient lore. This connects with the line, "The Sibyl doth to singing men allow," suggesting that Nerval sought, and perhaps even achieved, a kind of mythic understanding that was unappreciated or misunderstood by his contemporaries: "Yet thy report folk heeded not, but blamed."

The closing sestet shifts focus from Nerval's spiritual quest to the simpler yet significant moments of his life: "And they would smile and wonder, seeing where / Thou stood'st, to watch light leaves, or clouds, or wind." There is a sweetness here, a reminder that the poet also found beauty in everyday phenomena. The concluding lines-"A new life gladder than the old times were, / A love more fair than Sylvie and as kind?"-reference Sylvie, one of Nerval's renowned works, presenting a hypothetical scenario where Nerval might find an afterlife filled with even greater happiness and love.

The sonnet form provides Lang with the structural discipline to encapsulate a multifaceted portrait of Nerval. By adhering to the conventions of the form, Lang successfully weaves a rich tapestry of themes-freedom, confinement, artistic pursuit, misunderstanding, and the hope for something greater beyond life-into a compact yet comprehensive tribute to Nerval. The sonnet form serves to condense complex ideas and emotions into a focused, poignant exploration of the poet's life, echoing the similarly compact and intricate works that Nerval himself was known for.

In summary, Andrew Lang's "Gerard de Nerval" is a finely crafted elegy that pays tribute to a complicated figure, capturing both his restless quest for the transcendental and his appreciative eye for everyday beauty. The poem offers a nuanced understanding of Nerval's life and work, presenting him as a sacred soul misunderstood by society yet forever free in the boundless realm of artistic and spiritual exploration.

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