Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Arthur Rimbaud's "Ordinary Nocturne" is a journey through the abstracted landscapes of dreams and night, where the mind's geography blurs the lines between reality and illusion. Through evocative imagery and intricate symbolism, the poem explores themes of dislocation, transformation, and the impermanence of physical and psychological boundaries.

The opening lines reveal a "breath" that alters the physical world, a force capable of reshaping the very architecture of reality: walls, roofs, hearths, and windows. The image of breath serves as a catalyst for the metamorphosis that follows. The breath could symbolize the creative force of imagination or the transformative power of nature; it's left intentionally ambiguous, inviting multiple interpretations.

The narrator climbs down into a coach, described in intricate detail to suggest its antiquity with "convex panes of glass" and "bulging panels." The coach serves as a "hearse of my sleep" and "shepherd's house of my insanity," alluding to dual themes of death and madness. This vehicle isn't grounded; it "veers on the grass / of the obliterated highway," indicating a movement away from reality into the terrain of dreams or delirium.

The poem also incorporates celestial imagery, as "pale lunar figures, leaves, and breasts" revolve through a "defect" in the window. The moon, often symbolic of change and femininity, here could represent both the allure and instability of the nocturnal world. The colors "green and blue" further suffuse the scene, perhaps signifying the merging of earth and sky, tangible and intangible.

The poem then shifts to an almost apocalyptic vision, mentioning "Sodoms and Solymas" - biblical references to cities associated with sin and destruction. However, this vision is also ambiguous; it's unclear whether the postilion and animals are guiding the narrator towards enlightenment or further into a sort of madness. Either way, the surroundings are "stifling forests," a vivid representation of the narrator's psychological landscape.

As the poem concludes, it returns to the idea of boundaries becoming fluid. Just as the initial breath dislodged walls and hearths, another breath "disperses / the boundaries of the hearth." This cyclical structure reinforces the theme of transformation and impermanence, suggesting that the realms of sleep, insanity, and perhaps even life itself are in constant flux.

"Ordinary Nocturne" is an intricate poem that dares the reader to travel along its surreal pathways, and in doing so, confront the unstable boundaries that separate reality from illusion, sanity from madness, and life from the dream-like realm that exists in the shadows of our minds. It is a poignant expression of the human condition, wrapped in layers of complexity and enigma, inviting us to ponder the mutable landscapes within and outside us.

POEM TEXT:

A breath opens operatic breaches

in the walls,-- blurs the pivoting of crumbling roofs,--

disperses the boundaries

of hearths,-- eclipses the windows.

Along the vine, having rested my foot on a waterspout,

I climbed down into this coach,

its period indicated clearly enough

by the convex panes of glass,

the bulging panels, the contorted sofas.

Isolated hearse of my sleep,

shepherd's house of my insanity,

the vehicle veers on the grass

of the obliterated highway:

and in the defect at the top

of the right-hand windowpane

revolve pale lunar figures, leaves, and breasts. --

A very deep green and blue invade the picture.

Unhitching near a spot of gravel. --

Here will they whistle for the storm,

and the Sodoms and Solymas,

and the wild beasts and the armies,

(Postilion and animals of dream,

will they begin again in the stifling

forests to plunge me up to my eyes

in the silken spring?)

And, whipped through the splashing of waters

and spilled drinks, send us rolling

on the barking of bulldogs...

--A breath disperses

the boundaries of the hearth.

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