Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Derek Walcott’s "Endings" reflects on the quiet, often unnoticed nature of conclusion, particularly the endings of love, life, and even monumental artistic achievements. Through subdued imagery and understated language, Walcott explores the idea that things do not meet their end in a dramatic explosion but rather in a slow, inevitable fading, drawing attention to the silent and almost invisible ways in which life unwinds.

The opening lines, “Things do not explode, / they fail, they fade,” immediately set the tone for the poem. Walcott rejects the common expectation of a climactic, violent end. Instead, he presents a more realistic, subtle process of decline. The imagery that follows, “as sunlight fades from the flesh, / as the foam drains quick in the sand,” uses natural elements to underscore the idea of impermanence. Sunlight, an essential force of life, retreats slowly, symbolizing aging or the loss of vitality. Similarly, the foam, a transient formation on the shore, disappears quietly and swiftly, suggesting that moments of intensity or passion, even in their brightness, are fleeting and dissolve without fanfare.

Walcott brings love into this framework of endings, remarking that “even love’s lightning flash / has no thunderous end.” Love, often compared to something powerful and all-consuming, like lightning, is revealed here as something that does not end with a grand, devastating crash. Rather, it fades, just like everything else. The absence of a “thunderous end” to love reflects Walcott’s belief in the quiet dissolution of emotions and relationships, where what once seemed intense eventually softens into silence.

This concept of fading is reinforced in the lines, “it dies with the sound / of flowers fading like the flesh / from sweating pumice stone.” Here, the fading of flowers, another emblem of beauty and life, mirrors the natural decline of the body, reinforcing the connection between life’s fragility and the inevitable passage of time. The mention of “sweating pumice stone” adds texture to this metaphor, as pumice, rough and abrasive, is often used to smooth the skin. The act of flowers fading from stone suggests that, no matter how solid or enduring something appears, it too is subject to the forces of time and erosion.

As the poem progresses, the inevitability of this fading process extends beyond the physical world. The final lines, “everything shapes this / till we are left / with the silence that surrounds Beethoven’s head,” introduce the figure of Beethoven, the great composer who is often associated with powerful, thunderous music. Yet, in the context of this poem, even Beethoven’s legacy, with all its grandeur and resonance, is ultimately enveloped in silence. Walcott implies that even the most monumental human achievements—whether love, life, or art—are destined to end in quiet, not in noise or explosion.

The image of “the silence that surrounds Beethoven’s head” is profound. Beethoven, who famously lost his hearing, created some of his most powerful music in total silence. In this way, Walcott evokes a sense of reverence for the quiet that accompanies the end of things. It’s not a negation of the value of what has come before, but rather an acknowledgment that silence is the natural conclusion to all forms of expression and existence. The poem leaves us with the idea that endings are not marked by destruction or chaos, but by the stillness that follows.

"Endings" ultimately captures the idea that life, love, and even the most passionate or brilliant aspects of existence conclude in subtle ways, not with a bang but with a quiet dissolution. Walcott’s use of fading natural imagery—sunlight, foam, flowers—mirrors the soft decline of all things, leaving behind a contemplative silence that invites reflection on the nature of life’s impermanence.

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