The Poetic Universe of Edith Wharton-part one

 The Poetic Universe of Edith Wharton

Abstract

Edith Wharton created an original body of poetic ideas that thrill the reader and engage in a real discourse

which creates real emotions of exaltation and wonder. Hence, the presentation of the most exhilarating

poems and their thematic outline is the main aim of the following literary engagement as such. From the

resurrection of Christ, the enjoyment of nature and architecture, the poetess takes us through some mirific

stages and stunning wonders of the world that leave the reader breathless at some point. Thus, the poems

speak for themselves.

Key words: mirific glow, hope, blessed bliss, wonder, astonishment

Abstract

Edith Wharton a creat un ansamblu original de idei poetice care captivează cititorul și antrenează într-un

adevărat discurs care crează emoții reale de exaltare și de extaz contemplativ (mirare). Astfel, prezentarea

celor mai impresionante poeme și a lor structură tematică este principalul scop al următorului periplu

literar, ca atare. De la învierea lui Hristos, savurarea naturii și a arhitecturii, poeta ne poartă prin unele

etape și minuni mirifice ale lumii care lasă cititorul fără respir la un moment dat. Așadar, poemele

vorbesc pentru sine.

Cuvinte cheie: strălucire mirifică, speranță, luciu binecuvântat, mirare, exaltare

1. The forward marching through the density of Wharton’s creative stanzas and lyrics as such

Wharton’s universe is a universal melting pot of American and European culture, which inspired

Wharton firstly visiting Europe in 1870. The most exhilarating poems offer also very variated reading

experiences such as it is the case of several, here especially chosen poems to render her ideatic and poetic

universe as such. The poem “A Failure” is a real emotional breakthrough as it praises ideal love and

affection. The love of the woman is thus very much ideally heightened to an intense feeling of belonging

and it wants also to reach physical and mental perfection:

I meant to be so strong and true!

The world may smile and question, When?

But what I might have been to you

I cannot be to other men.

Just one in twenty to the rest,

And all in all to you alone, -

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This was my dream; perchance 'tis best

That this, like other dreams, is flown.

For you I should have been so kind,

So prompt my spirit to control,

To win fresh vigor for my mind,

And purer beauties for my soul;

Beneath your eye I might have grown

To that divine, ideal height,

Which, mating wholly with your own,

Our equal spirits should unite.(Wharton, A Failure)

The poem is ironically called failure as it does not express the thought of failure as such, but only in the

sense that the poetess wanted to reach ideal love, one to be of more intense female feeling when

expressing the feeling of love as such. It is more a certain hymn dedicated to love and furthermore

reaches for the spiritual heights, for the uplifting element in the eyes of the beloved. It is an ode to pure

love that reaches out and succumbs to the strong embrace of the partner, as an equal spirit. The woman

wanted to be true to her partner and most of all to be wholeheartedly committed to him as she wanted to

be totally his and thus not to share her feelings with other men or other beings as such. To the other men

she might have been just “one in twenty”. To what an extent this has been accomplished is debatable, the

only thing remaining valid is the strive, the wish, the intent to be perfect and ideal in love sharing.

“Perchance” means thus that the dream might not have been in vain, might not have been “flown”.

The poem “Chartres” has a deep psychological insight:

I. Immense, august, like some Titanic bloom,

The mighty choir unfolds its lithic core,

Petalled with panes of azure, gules and or,

Splendidly lambent in the Gothic gloom,

And stamened with keen flamelets that illume

The pale high-alter. On the prayer-worn floor,

By worshippers innumerous thronged of yore,

A few brown crones, familiars of the tomb,

The stranded driftwood of Faith's ebbing sea--

For these alone the finials fret the skies,

The topmost bosses shake their blossoms free,

While from the triple portals, with grave eyes,

Tranquil, and fixed upon eternity,

The cloud of witnesses still testifies.

II

The crimson panes like blood-drops stigmatise

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The western floor. The aisles are mute and cold.

A rigid fetich in her robe of gold,

The Virgin of the Pillar, with blank eyes,

Enthroned beneath her votive canopies,

Gathers a meagre remnant to her fold.

The rest is solitude; the church, grown old,

Stands stark and grey beneath the burning skies.

Well-nigh again its mighty framework grows

To be a part of nature's self, withdrawn

From hot humanity's impatient woes;

The floor is ridged like some rude mountain lawn,

And in the east one giant window shows

The roseate coldness of an Alp at dawn. (Wharton, Chartres)

In this poem the place “Chartres” (a town in the northern part of France) is meticulously described as a

place of unforgettable richness, romanticism and voluptuousness. The crimson panes stand for the strong

feeling of love and passion, as it is so typical of French mood and state of art. The mighty choir develops

its power and its light as it sings and luminates the choir by its enriching presence. The panes are azure

reflecting the sky and “gule” leading the reader to the thought of the painted glass of churches. The

coloured top of the church might also be envisaged as it is almost always the case with the singers and

the special moments of celebration. On the floor the preying people are somehow humble as they kneel

on it, and some are mostly haunted by the past preying thus for God’s forgiveness. Some elderly people

present their familiarity to old age, personified in the tomb. It is for them and also for the sea (again? a

repeated motive with Wharton) that the finials fret the skies, as the cloud of “witnesses” reflects their

presence implying a superior power that guards upon the church.

In the second poem the crimson panes are reflected in the Western floor. They “stigmatise” the floor

means that they carry with them the thought of the original sacrifice. The aisles are “mute” and “cold”

and are thus again witnesses to the present moment. Being a mere copy, “the Virgin of the pillar” gathers

some remnant people underneath her robe. She is underneath her canopy nevertheless. Faith remains thus

highly protected in the church. It is a strong image nevertheless of faith, blessed by solitude that the

poetess thus conveyed. Hence, although it has grown old and grey, near to the core of nature, the church

remains “stark” meaning that it persists and resists the “burning” skies, a subtle hint to the “burning fires

of hell”. It remains distant to all the woes of impatient people and humans in general. In the eastern

window the coldness of the mountain can be seen resembling the feeling of distance specific of solitude,

grace and mightiness.The poem “La Belgique ne regrette rien” inspires to selfless country love and

mostly to the thought of relentlessness (harshness), fearlessness and undefeatedness.

Not with her ruined silver spires,

Not with her cities shamed and rent,

Perish the imperishable fires

That shape the homestead from the tent.

Wherever men are staunch and free,

There shall she keep her fearless state,

And homeless, to great nations be

The home of all that makes them great.(Wharton, La Belgique ne regrette rien)

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This poem is about the termination of war, which is greatly connected to the aspiration for material

greatness and for supreme control over the world. It is also a kind of invitation to avoid nationalistic

thinking and not to be overwhelmed by strict boundary fixations of the territories, as one cannot own

them, becoming thus rather “homeless” and not fixed on ownership. Initially written in support of King

Albert, the poem is supposed to instill the feeling of peace and independence. As Belgium was hit

particularly hard by war, the poetess marks its devastation by the “imperishable fires” and she is thus

saddened by the then current situation. The poem is inspired by symbolism and modernism with the

crushing symbols: “silver spires”(for national emblems) and modern features as “cities shamed and rent”

and the prevalence of blank verses in the second stanza. The country is personified in the presence of a

female instance “she” that can not win its independence, unless she becomes fearless and staunch. This

female impersonation might lead to a more humane thinking of power and leading ambition. Thus, the

country’s “ruined spires” aren’t of any help to it and the “shamed cities” referring to the victims of the

city as such will not stop the “imperishable fires”. What strikes the reader is the fact that “La Belgique” is

a female noun as the article “la” stands for the feminine in French. It is thus a mark upon history since the

term is acknowledged as a masculine one “his”-story. By being feminine the countries leave their marks

of freedom on “mankind” across “history”. Women thus, change men in time.

“Botticelli’s Madonna in the Loevre” is also a highly succeeded poem not in the least for its utmost

originality.

What strange presentiment, O Mother, lies

On thy waste brow and sadly-folded lips,

Forefeeling the Light's terrible eclipse

On Calvary, as if love made thee wise,

And thou couldst read in those dear infant eyes

The sorrow that beneath their smiling sleeps,

And guess what bitter tears a mother weeps

When the cross darkens her unclouded skies?

Sad Lady, if some mother, passing thee,

Should feel a throb of thy foreboding pain,

And think - 'My child at home clings so to me,

With the same smile . . . and yet in vain, in vain,

Since even this Jesus died on Calvary' -

Say to her then: 'He also rose again.' (Wharton, Botticelli’s Madonna in the Loevre)

The comparison of Boticelli’s Madonna with the holy virgin with child, as a truly strong predicament

becomes overemphasized. The light is thus darkening for the mother that loses her dear child on the

cross. The metaphor of the light’s eclipse is very strong as the absence of light evinces the presence of

pain and suffering, on “calvary” as such. The act of Jesus’ death might seem as “in vain” as the mother

replies to the other mother that has her child cling to her, as to a cross, that he really rose again, as a sign

of hope and rebirth. The usage of the old pronoun forms gives the poem an ultimate taste of freedom and

elegance. The tone is sober and solemn at the