Something reminded me

One of my favorite literary devices is the allusion. It's like hypertext, but instead of having to click the word, reading it sets into motion a cloud of referents. I especially like it because it works well with how I encounter the world: one idea makes me think of another that makes me think of this poem, and what other poems did that poet write? Pretty soon, I'm off on a far different mental path, and then I'm suddenly at school, wondering how did I possibly drive here without noticing?

So, I followed a link from a friend's blog and read around the site. I discovered that the content (little, gnomic statements about life) made me think of poems I know or half remember, as though each statement were an unknowing allusion. Although I'm not the ideal reader of the site, it is kind of fun to read one of its aphorisms and then send myself on a sprawling search.

"No regret" reminded me of "Danse Russe" by William Carlos Williams. I love this poem in part because the tone is delightful. It describes a quiet moment of absurdity and love, and although most readers may take "lonely" to be typically a negative emotion, Williams uses it as a way to think about the pleasure of missing the beloved who is near or about to arrive. Then, loneliness becomes transformed into a longing that will be fulfilled. Now, I am the kind of person who likes to anticipate more than to arrive, so the idea appeals to me, that one's primary or essential element is longing. Here is Williams' poem:

Danse Russe

If when my wife is sleeping

and the baby and Kathleen

are sleeping

and the sun is a flame-white disc

in the silken mists

above shining trees,—

if I in my north room

dance naked, grotesquely

before my mirror

waving my shirt around my head

and singing softly to myself:

" I am lonely, lonely.

I was born to be lonely,

I am best so!"

If I admire my arms, my face,

my shoulders, flanks, buttocks

against the yellow drawn shades,—

Who shall say I am not

the happy genius of my household?

As I've mentioned before, a large part of the human condition is being ridiculous. Williams describes his naked dance, swinging his shirt around like an idiot. I know that dance. I've done it, seen Sam do it, and it's utterly charming how Williams talks about it. Sometimes, reader, we are grotesque, but far better to acknowledge it yourself than to have the reminder shoved upon you.