October 24, 2013

"Lines Written in Oregon"

The poem is written in ten stanzas of, for the most part, perfectly rhymed triplets.  The poem seems to be addressed to Esmeralda, a woman or girl who may be likened to Lolita. Especially in light of the "bewitched" forest, that is enchanted or otherwise transmogrified by an external agent. The voice of the poem, furthermore, was in or near a "dungeon" or prison, much like Humbert Humbert, where it is thought Esmeralda is dead. Stanza four invokes the color blue, the color often associated with Lolita, as well as the image of the moth, a peacock moth, also blue, but more importantly, a parallel to the symbolic transformations in the novel signified by the butterfly and moth. Lake Merlin in stanza five recalls the many lakes in the novel as well as an association to magic, enchantment, and bewitchment. Also, the sign which is insignificant of any Peak... it is an anonymous peak. The sixth stanza, in a parenthetical, reads, "Europe, nonetheless, is over" recalling the dichotomy between old world and new world; which, in turn is recapitulated in the next stanza by the "burn" signifying the death of old growth forest.  The "Latin lilies climb and turn/ Into Gothic fir and fern" represent the new, secondary growth- a transformation or rebirth in its own right. Stanza nine breaks the address to Esmeralda and the poet's voice says, "And I rest where I awoke/ In the sea shade..."  Possibly, this suggests that Esmeralda really is dead. Furthermore, the "sea shade" recalls the beach where Humbert and Annabel failed to love, and, at the same time, sets up a juxtaposition of the sea with the forest. Both are spaces which contrast with normal, civilized, delineated spaces in their ubiquitousness of matter. Esmeralda is the word that begins both the first and last lines of the poem, these are the only instances of her proper name, and set the whole of the poem in context of her and her relationship with the poet's voice. In the last line her name is followed twice by the German, "immer," meaning always.