The Erection of Life

                To me, a poet’s work is about building or erecting an artist’s representation of something.  That representation is very similar to a metaphor.  Poetry allows us to see things in a different light with a new understanding.  I believe it was Dr. Scott Abbot who said that poets can take words that mean one thing and use them in a way which creates a whole new meaning.  I suppose this can be partly why poetry is difficult to understand sometimes, because we want to use the literal meaning for words yet it doesn’t fit with the context because the poet has changed the meaning to create something new and different with it.

                Rainer Maria Rilke is a great example of creating his own language with words.  There is such power and beauty in the metaphors used to build an explanation of our human existence.  Rilke's “Duino Elegies” , as with other poetry, are created structurally just as monuments, statues, and buildings are erected.  There is a foundation, a basic message, that must be expressed in a way that the purpose or idea can be told.  Rilke splits that structure into 10 Elegies that each build upon the last one and take the next step towards the ultimate message or purpose of the poetry, which to me is life and the purpose of life for us.  It is the process of beginning life, building who we are, what we will become, dying, and leaving a monument of ourselves erected for those we leave behind.  Rilke builds this life throughout the elegies and takes us through the process.  In The First Elegy there is talk of springtime which is the season of birth; it is the beginning of the life cycle.  This is the elegy that also mentions enduring “as the arrow endures the bowstrings tension, so that gathered in the snap of release it can be more than itself.”  To me, the beginning is the moment when we have the most potential, when everything is possible, just like the moment of suspension for an arrow.  The fact that this comes at the beginning of the “Duino Elegies”, in the first elegy, is no coincidence because the rest of the elegies that follow will show that potential and fulfill the possibilities.

                We continue on from the birth in The Second Elegy which talks about “early successes”.  This is beginning to form the accomplishment of possibilities and build from the first elegy.  It talks of creation and also finding our place in life, where we belong.  It is the process of becoming and establishing our existence.

                In The Third Elegy our purpose is seen and begins to push forth, unable to be held back any longer, and drives us to stand.  As is stated, “Ah, where are the years when you shielded him just by placing your slender form between him and the surging abyss?” we are beginning to lose our protection from the world and are starting to become exposed to the cruelty of life.

                As we progress into The Fourth Elegy we are taken further into the loss of protection as we start to feel conflict with our purpose and ask the question, “Am I not right?”  We recognize the innocence of our childhood, the days when we couldn’t wait to be older, to be able to drive, to be independent and in control of our own lives, and we start to long for those days again as we begin the process of moving from the unconscious state of childhood to the conscious state of adulthood. 

                We continue to build our lives as we enter The Fifth Elegy.  Duration is introduced to us, the ability to stand despite the world around us and all the times we will inevitably fall with the pains of life.  We move past stella, as Dr. Abbott referred to it -  the place in between, as we become fully conscious and aware of our being.

                As life continues on we move into The Sixth Elegy which talks of the fig tree which drops its blossoms and produces fruit.  “We enter the overdue interior of our final fruit” longing for youth and childhood and the innocence that accompanies them.

                In the Seventh Elegy we begin to see what we have been building throughout our lives and as we move into the Eighth Elegy we are able to reflect more upon our life and what has been done.  “Who has twisted us around like this, so that no matter what we do, we are in the posture of someone going away?  Just as, upon the farthest hill, which shows him his whole valley one last time, he turns, stops, lingers -, so we live here, forever taking leave.”  We begin to summarize our lives, to see what we have built, what has fallen, and what has been re-built.

                In The Ninth Elegy Rilke talks, again, about endurance.  It seems to be the last chance to make an effort to achieve our purpose.  “And so we keep pressing on, trying to achieve it, trying to hold it firmly in our simple hands, on our overcrowded gaze, in our speechless heart.  Trying to become it. – Whom can we give it to?”  This not only shows the idea of trying to desperately complete the process, but also the recognition that when our life is over, it is over.  We cannot take with us what we have built, so who will be left with our legacy that we leave behind and what will that legacy be? 

                The Tenth Elegy is the final phase of our life.  It is the completion of our purpose. “Alone, he climbs on, up the mountains of primal grief.  And not once do his footsteps echo from the soundless path.”  We move on from this life leaving behind all of the monuments that we built throughout our existence for those who will stay behind.  This is the point when, after a lifetime of trying to stand, we finally fall.

                John Ashbery talks about the moment in “the middle of the journey, before the sands are reversed” as the “place of ideal quiet.” (Three Poems)   I see this place as the moments in life where we have built something and it has yet to fall.  It is the peak of a relationship, when admiration, trust, loyalty, and love are at the highest point before life creates moments of mistrust and doubt that creep in.  It is the moment of achievement after we have worked so hard but before our minds begin to question.  It is the moment of ecstasy before reality comes back.  Ashbery also talks about photographs and capturing that moment in stillness.  He talks about life and that point when you decide for yourself what you want your life to be.  That moment is another one of his moments when the sands are still and have yet begun to reverse where everything stops and stands still.

                T. S. Eliot also discusses theses moments when he talks about “the still point of the turning world…Where past and future are gathered.  Neither movement from nor towards, neither ascent nor decline.  Except for the point, the still point.”(Four Quartets)  This is the moment when time comes together and no longer seems to exist. 

                Rilke, Ashbery, and Eliot all seem to not only talk about that moment when everything is still, but all of them also write about life from different perspectives.  They seem to all present the idea that there is a purpose, something that we are striving for and building as we live.  And perhaps for each of them, their poetry became their purpose.   Poetry is like life, a building up of ideas in order to create something that can remain once the poet is gone…their own monument to the world in words, rather than stone or marble, but with a foundation that will remain.