Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

William Stanley Merwin's poem "Vixen" is a complex and meditative work that engages with themes of time, memory, and the ineffable qualities of existence. The poem opens with an oxymoronic image: a "Comet of stillness," bringing together the idea of celestial motion and earthly stillness, a paradox that reverberates throughout the poem. This image also sets the stage for the poem's contemplation of opposites: presence and absence, light and darkness, reality and imagination.

The speaker refers to the vixen, often a symbol for a cunning or alluring creature, as a "princess of what is over," a keeper of "kept secrets," and a "warden of where the river went." These descriptions suggest that the vixen is a guardian of the past, of lost stories and extinguished dreams. However, the vixen is also ever-present, existing "in the full moonlight of autumn," during the "hour when I was born," and running "on the breathless night." The creature embodies both a timeless state and a specific moment, a duality that deepens the poem's exploration of existence beyond linear time.

The poem also plays with the tension between the spoken and the unspoken, between language and silence. The vixen is described as a "high note held without trembling without voice without sound," as if she is a presence that transcends the need for verbal communication. When the speaker does hear her, it awakens something so deep within him that "the soles of my feet have made answer." This profound, nonverbal interaction suggests that some experiences are too primal or too sacred to be fully captured in language.

The vixen appears to serve as a touchstone for the speaker's own existence. She is "warmer than the moonlight" and "unharmed," a kind of primordial purity that persists despite the chaos of life. Yet, she also brings the speaker to a heightened awareness of his own impermanence: "something that we were / had ended." She is a reminder not only of what has been lost or is fading but also of the fleeting yet beautiful moments that make up life.

Towards the end, the poem returns to the idea of extinction, of things coming to an end, yet it also contains a plea: "let my words find their own / places in the silence after the animals." Here, the poem points towards a longing for resonance, for meaning that outlasts us. It's a wish for words to find their own places in the grand silence, implying that even as life is ephemeral, the traces it leaves can endure in unexpected ways.

"Vixen" is a poem that compels us to grapple with the complexities of existence, the paradoxes of time, and the limitations and possibilities of language. Its rich imagery and intricate themes make it a work open to multiple layers of interpretation, a poetic exploration that is both deeply personal and universally resonant.

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