Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Arthur Rimbaud's "Sideboard" serves as a compelling metaphorical space to explore the complexities of memory, family history, and the passage of time. The poem describes an oak sideboard-old, ornate, and full of contents that whisper the narratives of past generations. The sideboard represents a capsule of familial history, containing items like yellowed linens, scraps of clothes, and fading portraits. These artifacts are the physical embodiments of long-gone experiences and emotions; they signify the cumulative narrative of an entire lineage.

The line "The dark old wood, like old folks, seems kind," evokes a sense of sentimental warmth, signifying that the sideboard, much like elder members of a family, holds wisdom and history within its confines. It's not just a piece of furniture; it is a repository of stories, "a final resting place" for memories that have been cherished and preserved. The sideboard's "drawers are open," but they are not transparent. What they contain-locks of grey or yellow hair, old medals, portraits, a dried bouquet-holds meaning, but they only offer fragments, pieces of a larger puzzle. They beckon interpretation but don't offer a complete picture, much like how individual memories are fragments of an entire life.

Rimbaud employs sensory detail to enrich the text, such as the "scent of strong old wine" and the "smell of fruit." This olfactory landscape intertwines with the sentimental aspects of the objects, creating a visceral atmosphere that magnifies the power of memory and nostalgia. The reader is not just seeing the sideboard but experiencing it through multiple senses, connecting in a multi-dimensional way to the histories it represents.

The phrase "O sideboard of old, you know a great deal more" emphasizes the sideboard's silent knowledge. It could "tell us your tales," but it remains "mute." This could be a metaphor for how family history is often passed down incompletely or imperfectly. The sideboard serves as a metaphor for the human inability to fully access the past, despite its tangible remnants. We can "slowly open your old dark door," but the full depth of the stories remains elusive.

It's also worth noting the touch of melancholy that surfaces in lines like "locks of grey or yellow hair" and "a dried bouquet." These signify the inescapable passage of time and the frailty of human existence. They are reminders that the people these objects belonged to are likely gone, existing now only in the form of these preserved mementos.

In "Sideboard," Rimbaud crafts a microcosm of human history and memory, embedded in the dark wood and fragrant drawers of an old piece of furniture. He invites the reader to contemplate the evasive nature of the past and the tantalizing but ultimately incomplete fragments of stories that each generation leaves behind. The poem is an eloquent statement on how memory is at once deeply intimate and forever ungraspable, much like the history contained within the sideboard.

POEM TEXT:

It is a high, carved sideboard made of oak.

The dark old wood, like old folks, seems kind;

Its drawers are open, and its odours soak

The darkness with the scent of strong old wine.

Its drawers are full, a final resting place

For scented, yellowed linens, scraps of clothes

Foe wives or children, worn and faded bows,

Grandmothers' collars made of figured lace;

There you will find old medals, locks of grey

Or yellow hair, and portraits, and a dried bouquet

Whose perfume mingles with the smell of fruit.

- O sideboard of old, you know a great deal more

And could tell us your tales, yet you stand mute

As we slowly open your old dark door.

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