Poštolka (Prague) by Christian
Wiman
When I was
learning words
and you
were in the bath
there was a
flurry of small birds
and in the
aftermath
of all that
panicked flight—
as if the
red dusk willed
a
concentration of its light—
a falcon on
the sill.
It scanned
the orchard's bowers,
then pane
by pane it eyed
the stories
facing ours
but never
looked inside.
I called
you in to see.
And when
you steamed the room
and naked
next to me
stood
dripping, as a bloom
of blood
formed in your cheek
and slowly
seemed to melt,
I could
almost speak
the love I
almost felt.
Wish for
something, you said.
A shiver
pricked your spine.
The falcon
turned its head
and locked
its eyes on mine.
For a long
moment then
I wished
and wished and wished
the moment
would not end.
And just
like that it vanished.
“Mimetic criticism: Poštolka (Prague) by Christian Wiman” by Corina Moscovich
What is the reality of human experience? As reality is
the context in which the work is studied, one may think this was a real event
in the poet´s life. Mimetic criticism is committed to truth, reality, and the
idea that literature, in some ways, imitates life. The narrator is learning
through imitation. The life of a human being and the life of an animal... As
the falcon, the narrator needs to take a glimpse of his life. As the falcon, he
never looked inside their story, an apparent surface story where feelings could
not be expressed.
Poštolka is a poem composed of 28 lines, arranged in
seven verses. There are nine sentences within those verses. It is written in a
simple style. One part of the poem talks about the falcon, another about the
narrator´s couple: “ours”, “naked next to me”, and “the love I almost felt” and
a third one about the narrator´s feelings in such a confusing moment.
The first two lines give an account of what was
happening: when and where. It gives images of the physical contemporary
setting: “When I was learning words”,
“you were in the bath”, “red dusk”, “orchard´s bowers”, etc. But then the physical world of the two
lovers cannot be found so precisely. The 3rd line is a continuation of the
action made by the falcon. The fact that the falcon is a diurnal bird helps to
make the poem more credible (According to the dictionary, a falcon is “any
diurnal bird of prey of the family FALCONIDAD, sometimes trained to hunt small
animals for sport”). The 4th and 5th lines give the
reader an idea of what is happening between this couple. The fourth line breaks the poem. The narrator
is not alone anymore because he calls her in to see. And she goes next to him.
When there is love there is no fear. The 6th line has a fast rhythm. Many verbs
that denote action: “wish”, “said”, “pricked”, “turned”, “locked”. The 7th line, on the contrary, has a slow
rhythm. Few verbs that denote no action but an end: “wished” (3 times), “would not end”, “vanished”.
Literature mirrors the world, reality. It is this idea
that leads us to view the literary work as a true imitation, reflection or
representation of the world and human life. The image of the falcon is
allegorical, as the meaning is represented symbolically. It seems the falcon is
an instrument to make the reader realize the kind of life this person is
having. The poem is a narrative that talks about an event in a day in the
narrator´s life: the intrusion and presence of a falcon.
The name of the poem Poštolka (Prague) and the sentence “When I was learning words” made me
think of a foreigner in another country. I was surprised to find out that some
of my thoughts in my brainstorm were confirmed by real facts. I found out that
Christian Wiman, the author, has been a foreign lecturer at the Prague School
of Economics. Poštolka is a poem
that is better understood with the help of reference sources. Also, the
sentence “I called you in to see”
gives the idea that the narrator is surprised by the presence of the falcon.
The woman was not afraid of the falcon. Probably she was familiar with it. I
found out that the peregrine falcon is among Slovakia’s protected species and
that there is an organization in Prague devoted to falcons whose website
contains a live web camera view of peregrine falcons nesting on Tynsky Church
at Prague, Czech Republic.
Both the rhythm and the sound of words themselves contribute
to the meaning of Poštolka. In the first verse there are many words containing
the “W” sound, like “when, was”, “were”. The rhyme pattern is ABAB. There is
alliteration in “bloom of blood”. The voice in the poem is in first person but
the point of view is omniscient and circular. It starts in a room, probably a
place for study. “When I was learning words”, “it eyed the stories facing ours”,
then the bird on the sill takes a view of the place. Then it shifts to the
woman´s body, then to the woman and the narrator, then again to the narrator.
The writer writes as if mirroring words: corresponding pairs. The repetition of
the word “almost” shows the narrator´s emotion of that moment. The same as in “I wished and wished and wished” at the
end of the poem. The, “For a long moment I wished and wished and wished the
moment would not end”. Also, “When I was learning
words and you were in the bath...” “pane
by pane”.
The use of pronouns and personal references is very interesting.
The references to “you” and “I” are fairly similar in number. There are five “I”,
one “ours”, one “me”, one “mine and then four “you” and two “your”. The use of “it”
to replace “the falcon” is notorious because it gives more strength to the idea
that the falcon is just an incident in these people´s lives. The word falcon
itself appears two times in the poem, near the beginning, in the second verse
and towards the end, in the sixth verse.
Through an eventful moment in his life, the author of Poštolka
makes us think about deeper topics. He represents his world in the poem and
readers see that representation in the text: Life as a continual change
preceding death, as we are always in process.
Corina Moscovich