An Explication of Oscar Wilde's Panthea

Panthea by Oscar Wilde advocates for the pursuit of passion and enjoyment in youth, implying that people are often too quick to give them away in their search for professionalism and maturity. “I am too young to live without desire,” Wilde writes. “Too young art thou to waste this summer night/Asking those idle questions which of old/Man sought of seer and oracle, and no reply was told.” His association of desire and curiosity with youth suggests a fondness for young and adventurous lifestyles in the rapidly developing world of the late 19th century. In the second stanza, Wilde states that “wisdom is a childless heritage,” indicating that the inheritance of knowledge and experience marks man’s transition from childhood to adulthood. Wilde also claims that the young should not “vex thy soul with dead philosophy,” showing that he disliked the philosophical and idealistic movements of late 19th century Britain. Later in the poem, Wilde uses subtle literary references to enhance the imagery and emotion of his work. His description of the “envious, pale moon” in the third stanza is a clear allusion to a nearly identical line in Romeo and Juliet, a tale of forbidden love and passion, values not unlike those he encourages in Panthea. As Wilde describes the “boyish limbs in the water,” he is likely referencing Ganymede, the character from Greek mythology. Ganymede was an exuberant young lover of Zeus’s, and he embodied many of the characteristics that Wilde highlighted in his work.



Panthea is fairly standard of late 19th century British symbolist poetry. Its rejection of reality and unhappiness is apparent, and its traditional language, references to the arts, and vivid imagery are typical of the era. The theme of the poem that differs from traditional work during the symbolist movement is its anti-religious sentiment. Wilde denounces Christianity, suggesting that prayer and repentance are tiresome, pointless practices. Referencing the youthful, often foolish behavior of the deities of Greek mythology, Wilde argues that the practice of religion must progress and be replaced by the practice of passion. The tranquility that religious expression brings is not representative of the necessary difficulties of life. Pain and loneliness, Wilde states, are the inherently human emotions that all must experience to truly be one with nature and the surrounding world. In one of the final stanzas, it is said that “without life's conscious torturing pain, we will never feel the sun… the soul earth’s earliest conqueror becomes earth’s last great prey.”

Representative Symbolist Poets

William Yeats was a Protestant, Anglo-Irish poet. He was born on June 13th, 1865 in Sandymount, Ireland to a wealthy family. He spent fourteen years of his early life in London, and would later live there in his early adult life. He was very proud of his Irish heritage, as many of his poems and plays featured Irish heroes. Many of his plays also reflected his interest for mysticism, symbolism, and spiritualism. In 1885, Yeats published his first poetry for the first time in the Dublin University Review. When he moved back to his family in London in 1886, he continued to write poems, plays, novels, and short stories all with Irish characters and themes. In 1890, Yeats joined the Golden Dawn, a secret society that practiced ritual magic, and this began to influence his work. In the early twentieth century, he began to get interested in theater, which his father got him interested in. He quickly became very active at the Abbey Theatre Company, and because plays required more direct dialogue, his poems began to also reflect this. He worked there for the first fifteen years of the twentieth century, and then moved back to Ireland. Yeats continued to write poetry, and even joined the Irish Senate in 1922. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1923. His strongest work included The Wild Swans at Coole (1919), Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), The Tower (1928), The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933), and Last Poems and Plays (1940). His works focused on the contrasts of life and art, masks, cyclic theory, and the ideals of beauty. He passed away on January 28th, 1939.

T.S Eliot was born on September 26th, 1888 in St. Louis, although he would later renounce his American citizenship, and became naturalized as a British subject. His most influential works included "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1915), The Waste Land (1922), "The Hollow Men" (1925), "Ash Wednesday" (1930), and Four Quartets (1945). He was also known for his seven plays. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948. While his poems have been widely considered to be some of the greatest English symbolist works, he has been accused of being anti-semitic due to way Jews are depicted in many of his poems and plays. Eliot emphasized turning the unpoetic into poetic in his work, and common emotions and feelings experienced by the common person are absent in his poems. Eliot also recognized the duality of the struggle of men. His works focused on the weakening psychology of man, the changing of gender roles, and fragmentation. He passed away in London on January 4th, 1865.

Oscar Wilde was born on October 16th, 1854 in Dublin, Ireland. Wilde emphasized the importance of style in both life and art. His mother was a poet and Irish revolutionary and his dad was a surgeon who wrote wrote a work that was considered to be the standard for aural surgery for a couple of years. Growing up, Wilde endured a difficult childhood. His mother was doted on him and dressed him in woman’s clothes, while his father was a philanderer and was publicly condemned when a case about revealed his sexual activity with a young woman. Wilde was very strong student in college. At Trinity College in Dublin he won a Berkeley Gold Medal for Greek, and at Magdalen College, he received the Newdigate Prize in 1878 for his poem “Ravenna”. At Magdalen College, he was under the influences of John Ruskin, a writer and critic, as well as Walter Porter, a critic and essayist who legitimized Wilde’s beliefs on art and individualism. He wrote many plays, poems, and even a novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). It is not considered one of his stronger works, but it does give an 1890s view on the themes of sin and punishment and he gained plenty of notoriety from it. His most influential work was his comedic play, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). He was later tragically imprisoned for his homosexuality. While in prison, he wrote a letter, now titled De Profundis, (1905) to his lover, Lord Alfred Douglass. This letter was intended for not just Douglass, as it addresses Paris on November 30th, 1900.

What is This Poetic Era Good For, Anyways?

Symbolism was an artistic movement, one particularly prevalent in the world of poetry, that originated in late nineteenth-century Europe. It was a reactionary movement, born out of the artistic community’s distaste for the raw, harsh depictions of reality that manifested themselves within the literature of the naturalist and realist periods. Symbolists, unlike many writers and poets of the time, rejected society’s embrace of the ordinary. They promoted life’s beauties and perfections, using spirituality and imagination to evoke emotion and impassion their readers. Their language was traditional and their ideology supernatural, and their encouragement of the pursuit of passion and consumption of art in the modern world had a lasting effect on European society.


This poetic era is good for those who find little joy in analyzing the patterns and idiosyncrasies of modern poetry. It is good for people who find themselves more comfortable with simple rhyme schemes and traditional language than line breaks and onomatopoeia. It’s good for those with great interest in religious or mythological literature, as its references to holy texts and biblical tales are as abundant as they are subtle. It is good for people who enjoy the occasional metaphor, but often have trouble with poetry so deep that it seems indecipherable. It is an era that will particularly interest those more captivated by idealism than realism, people who allow their imaginations to stretch far beyond the bounds of reality.


This poetic era is certainly not for everyone. The complexity of the language and the unfamiliarity of the sentence structure can make for difficult reading, even if the poem’s message may be relatively simple once understood. Those who look to poetry for personal connection or relatability may also struggle with this British symbolism. The ideals encouraged by these poets are ones people often strive for or look to for inspiration, but very rarely achieve. The poems also seem to rarely tell a story or have any character involvement, so people interested in poetry with a storyline may not be particularly interested in the work of this era.





However, if you’re seeking inspiration or looking to find greater meaning within the context of the normalities and repetition of your life, this is the poetic era for you! It’s encouragement of the pursuit of passion and the rejection of life’s social constructs is nothing short of inspiring. It also may appeal to those with some interest in existentialism, as the entire movement upon which the genre was founded was based upon the rejection of reality and societal norms.

An Annotated List of Symbolist Poems

“The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock”




https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/detail/44212


In a piece as winding and labyrinth-like as this, it helps to keep track of the worlds that Prufrock bounces between throughout the poem. Look for the parlor, the sea, the city, and the anteroom in particular. The changes of world are usually signified by a stark shift in imagery and tone (for example, noir to etherealness when going between the city and the parlor). You can also follow his line of reasoning with regard to the “overwhelming question,” for which he arrives at a conclusion in the Hamlet section. The question combines with the motif of aging and mortality to give the poem a decidedly existential flavor.





“The Wasteland”


https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/47311


Since there is no decisive consensus on “The Wasteland,” the ordinary reader will benefit from reading the poem as five main worlds, made distinct by the poem’s five primary headings. Throughout the poem is the continuing theme of death, decay, and destruction, which show up in unique but obvious ways in each section. The first half of the poem is more naturally centered, while the second half has a much more urban feel to it. Watch for a dazed, removed tone as well as various historical allusions throughout, which heighten the sense of surreality in the face of destruction (particularly in the “unreal city” portion of the poem).





“This is Just to Say”


https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/56159


In twelve lines and 28 words, WIlliam Carlos Williams paints a picture of a relationship that is either (depending on the reader’s inclination) comfortably intimate and worn in, or on the verge of a spectacular collapse. Depending on the line of reasoning that the reader chooses, a simple, loving tone or one of dry, biting sarcasm emerges. Either way, the poem’s title situates it as a commonplace interaction of daily life, and the plums are definitely more than just fruit -- they are a symbol of the life that the speaker and addressee share, though what they mean is up for debate.





“The Red Wheelbarrow”


https://www.poetryfoundation.org/resources/learning/core-poems/detail/45502


When reading William Carlos Williams’ “The Red Wheelbarrow,” look out for screaming existential dread wrapped up in the deafening silence of Williams’ utterly simple, declarative language and imagery of a stock farm scene. The picture of a meadow and chickens after a rain is entirely idyllic, but Williams hints at the tip of the iceberg in the first two lines by noting their importance to some unknown entity.





“April”


http://www.poemhunter.com/i/poem_images/189/april-41.jpg


Destruction and warfare are readily apparent in “April,’ where the narrator finds himself utterly razed at the hands of three fate-like creatures. The mention of the olive boughs lying desiccated and stripped on the ground implies a peace process that’s gone horribly wrong, but goes unnoticed by onlookers (curtesy of “the bright mist”). Overall, look for a sense of existentialism and regret hidden among oblivious passers-by. Also, notice how the title contrasts with the content of the poem -- April, traditionally a month of rebirth, here hosts a scene of death and indefinite conclusion.





“Commission”


http://www.bartleby.com/300/82.html


Watch for Pound’s waffling between cynicism and genuine idealism and ambition in the lists of various scourges of the modern world -- some sarcastic, some not. Note the anaphora of “go to,” which gives the poem an active, iussive quality, as well as serving to break the fourth wall by addressing the reader (presumably). Also, notice the somewhat lofty ideals expressed in the poem -- railing against a lack of imagination, an absence of love, the complacency that creeps in with time. Take “Commission” as a communication of Pound’s more essential ideals.

An Explication of Possibly the Best Poem Ever (The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock)

The speaker in “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock” takes the reader through his existential crisis using repetition, juxtapositions, and a strange, ethereal tone to make his point clear. Recurring motifs in the narrator’s train of thought include mentions of his own mortality and his subsequent efforts to confront or avoid it, the “overwhelming question” which he returns to over and over again, and the oddly flat, well-appointed world from which he speaks. The speaker questions repeatedly throughout the piece “whether it would have been worth it, after all” to ask a particular “overwhelming question” which, we are led to believe, could have changed the course of his life. It’s possible that this question relates to a romantic relationship, given its proximity to the speaker’s rumination on women and his fear that a particular woman would misinterpret the question, were he to actually ask it. The frequent recurrence of this question underscores its status in the narrator’s mind and serves to heighten the feeling of obsession over a road not taken in his life. Additionally, Eliot contrasts the speaker’s luxurious surroundings with the raw, desolate tone in which he conveys his train of thought. Amidst impressive material comfort, he wonders, “Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,/Would it have been worth while… To have squeezed the universe into a ball /To roll it towards some overwhelming question...” In a single sentence, Prufrock jumps from his immediate (very comfortable) environment straight into a dark abyss of existential despair.


The hazy, pastel-like tone of Eliot’s language throughout the poem underscores the wavering, surreal feel of a mental tailspin as the narrator finds himself more and more removed from reality, even as he sits in great material plenty. Tea, toast, and coffee spoons abound as he tumbles deeper into his mental ordeal; he wonders, “Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,/Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?” These words have a dreamlike, ethereal quality and communicate the surreality and prison-like feeling of Prufrock’s situation. He continues on to describe the “mermaids” that he is seemingly able to observe from his same parlor perch in entirely matter-of-fact, commonplace language. This also serves to heighten the sadness inherent in the final phase of the poem, where he says very simply, “I do not think they will sing to me.” The sense of acceptance and resignment completes the overall feel of meaninglessness that the narrator seems to be experiencing. The sudden simplicity of the words bring the poem down to earth and even forces the reader to feel some sympathy for him.

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