"The year plunges into night / and the heart plunges / lower than night // to an empty, windswept place / without sun, stars or moon / but a peculiar light as of thought // that spins a dark fire-- / whirling upon itself until, / in the cold, it kindles // to make a man aware of nothing / that he knows, not loneliness / itself"
— Williams, William Carlos (1883-1963)
Work Title
Date
w. 1936, 1938
Metaphor
"The year plunges into night / and the heart plunges / lower than night // to an empty, windswept place / without sun, stars or moon / but a peculiar light as of thought // that spins a dark fire-- / whirling upon itself until, / in the cold, it kindles // to make a man aware of nothing / that he knows, not loneliness / itself"
Metaphor in Context
These
are the desolate, dark weeks
when nature in its barrenness
equals the stupidity of man.
The year plunges into night
and the heart plunges
lower than night
to an empty, windswept place
without sun, stars or moon
but a peculiar light as of thought
that spins a dark fire--
whirling upon itself until,
in the cold, it kindles
to make a man aware of nothing
that he knows, not loneliness
itself--Not a ghost but
would be embraced--emptiness,
despair--(They
whine and whistle) among
the flashes and booms of war;
houses of whose rooms
the cold is greater than can be thought,
the people gone that we loved,
the beds lying empty, the couches
damp, the chairs unused--
[...]
(p. 131)
are the desolate, dark weeks
when nature in its barrenness
equals the stupidity of man.
The year plunges into night
and the heart plunges
lower than night
to an empty, windswept place
without sun, stars or moon
but a peculiar light as of thought
that spins a dark fire--
whirling upon itself until,
in the cold, it kindles
to make a man aware of nothing
that he knows, not loneliness
itself--Not a ghost but
would be embraced--emptiness,
despair--(They
whine and whistle) among
the flashes and booms of war;
houses of whose rooms
the cold is greater than can be thought,
the people gone that we loved,
the beds lying empty, the couches
damp, the chairs unused--
[...]
(p. 131)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Written at the end 1936, collected in 1938 in The Complete Collected Poems (1906-1938).
Text from Selected Poems, ed. Charles Tomlinson (New York: New Directions, 1985).
Text from Selected Poems, ed. Charles Tomlinson (New York: New Directions, 1985).
Date of Entry
09/21/2013
