Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"Objects & Apparitions," translated by Elizabeth Bishop, is one of Octavio Paz's fascinating explorations into the world of art and the artist. Here, Paz focuses on Joseph Cornell, an American artist renowned for his assemblage art within glass-fronted boxes. Cornell's boxes are microcosms, miniature worlds capturing time, memory, and sentiment. Paz's poem works not just as a tribute to Cornell's art but also as a meditation on the nature of artistic creation, memory, and identity.

The poem starts by describing Cornell's boxes as "Hexahedrons of wood and glass," establishing their finite dimensions, but ironically, these boxes have "room in them for night and all its lights." The idea here is paradoxical: in a limited space, Cornell captures the infinite. They are "cages for infinity," a phrase suggesting that art has the power to distill vast and boundless themes into concrete forms. The boxes contain a mix of everyday objects - "Marbles, buttons, thimbles, dice, pins, stamps, and glass beads" - but their arrangement elevates them into "tales of the time," stories that transcend their material existence.

Paz goes on to explore the role of memory, which "weaves, unweaves the echoes." The objects within the boxes are both preserved and transformed, turning into something akin to "shadowless ladies" playing in the corners of the box. Their fixed nature in the boxes contrasts with their fluid nature in memory, where they "hurry away from their names." Cornell's art, thus, challenges the fixed identities and conventional meanings associated with objects.

The poem also engages with the act of creation, quoting Degas: "One has to commit a painting, the way one commits a crime." While painting might be an act of audacity or defiance for Degas, Cornell's boxes are not straightforward declarations but are more akin to complex riddles or "slot machine of visions," as Paz calls them. They are "minimal, incoherent fragments," yet they are the "opposite of History" and out of these fragments, Cornell has "made creations."

Towards the end, Paz dives into deeper existential concerns, remarking how the objects in the boxes put "the laws of identity through hoops." They challenge and unsettle the conventional, opening doors to multiple interpretations and insights. Cornell's boxes, in a sense, reflect "God all alone above an extinct world." They are worlds in themselves, yet they are also part of something much larger - perhaps the universe, perhaps art, perhaps the human imagination.

Finally, Paz pays homage to the transformative power of Cornell's art, claiming that inside these boxes, "my words became visible for a moment." In saying this, Paz acknowledges the ability of art to provide new dimensions to language, perception, and understanding. The poem is not only a masterful representation of Cornell's art but also a profound exploration of the complexities and paradoxes inherent in any act of creation.

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