Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In "Waumandee" by Mark Wunderlich, the poem examines the intersection of the natural world and human perception, focusing on the fleeting and elusive nature of beauty and the act of witnessing something extraordinary. Through the imagery of an albino buck in a field, the poem reflects on themes of visibility, absence, and the tension between reality and imagination. Wunderlich uses the appearance of this rare creature to explore how we project meaning onto the world around us, and how the natural world resists our attempts to fully understand or capture it.

The poem opens with the image of a man using binoculars to "fix a shape in the field," an act of searching and focusing that suggests an attempt to bring something into clearer view. The shape, initially unclear, is revealed as "the albino buck browsing / in the oats." The "white dash / on a page of green" is a stark visual contrast, the white of the buck standing out against the rich, green background of the field. This image of the buck as a "white dash" evokes a sense of rarity and purity, marking it as something out of the ordinary in its environment.

The description of the buck as a "flick of a blade / cutting paint to canvas" adds an artistic dimension to the observation, likening the movement of the animal to an action of creation. The buck’s movement through the oats is likened to a brushstroke on a canvas, suggesting that the natural world itself is an artwork in progress. This metaphor ties the natural world to human creativity, and the presence of the albino buck becomes both a literal and metaphorical creation, something both observed and constructed in the mind of the witness.

As the buck dips its head, "green effaced the white, / bled onto the absence that / the buck was—animal erasure," the poem reflects on the transitory nature of the animal’s appearance. The green of the field begins to obscure the white of the buck, effectively erasing it from view, as if the animal were vanishing back into the landscape. This act of "animal erasure" plays with the idea of absence and presence, as the buck is visible one moment but becomes increasingly less distinct as it blends into the environment. The buck’s brief appearance highlights its impermanence, and the idea of erasure suggests that the creature, like all things, is ultimately transient.

The next lines describe the buck standing "head up again," with "sugar legs" and "pink / antler prongs brushed at flies." These details, particularly the description of the legs as "sugar" and the "pink antler prongs," lend a sense of delicate vitality to the animal. The vividness of these sensory details captures the buck in a moment of stillness and awareness, with a sense of grace and vulnerability. The reference to flies, however, also underscores the inevitability of decay and imperfection in nature, highlighting the tension between beauty and mortality.

The image of the "imagined world / made visible" suggests that the witness, in seeing the albino buck, is encountering not just an animal, but something beyond the mundane—something mythical and symbolic. The buck becomes "a mythical beast," its presence in the field transcending its mere existence as an animal. The act of witnessing this creature becomes an encounter with the extraordinary, a brief, magical moment that seems to affirm the mysterious and mysterious nature of the world.

As the buck "startled" and "flagged its bright tail," there is a sense of finality in the moment—"auf Wiedersehen, surrender"—as if the buck is bidding farewell. The animal’s departure is swift and decisive, and in "leaping away," it becomes "a white tooth / in the closing mouth of the woods." This final image of the buck as a "white tooth" in the "closing mouth" evokes the idea of nature’s indifference and the fleeting nature of life. The mouth of the woods, like a predator, closes around the creature, reclaiming it as it retreats into the wild. The buck, though briefly visible and intensely observed, becomes part of the natural cycle once again, vanishing from sight.

“Waumandee” is a meditation on the transitory nature of beauty, the tension between presence and absence, and the way humans engage with the natural world. Through the encounter with the albino buck, the poem explores the elusive, almost mythical quality of nature, suggesting that the world around us is both visible and impermanent, constantly slipping away even as we try to fix our gaze upon it. The buck’s fleeting appearance becomes both a personal and universal symbol of the ephemerality of life, urging the reader to reflect on the moments of beauty and grace that pass by us, often unnoticed or unappreciated until they are gone.

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