What I Have Learned of Light A Poetics o (1)
What I Have Learned of Light:
A Poetics of Relativity and the Sonnet Form
Noelle Leslie dela Cruz, Ph.D. Philosophy Department De La Salle University
Manila, Philippines avalon.rain@gmail.com
This paper aims to discuss the significations of light in two
nature and uses of light are highly symbolic; consequently,
areas: first, in physics, as exemplified by the work of Albert
they are recurring motifs in the literary arts, not least of which
Einstein; and second, in literature, as may be understood in terms
is poetry.
of the metaphor or theme of light in relation to a specific poetic form, the sonnet. I present twenty poems, both in free verse and
The next section, on the poetics of light, demonstrates how
sonnet form, each one dealing with the theme of light on several
light is utilized, first in free verse poetry and then in the sonnet
levels. In doing a close reading of these works, I hope to show that,
form. The comparison of these two forms is undertaken with a
just as the nature of light unites two seemingly paradoxical
view to bringing out the effect of the structure of a piece on its
qualities (i.e. its corpuscular and wave natures), it is possible to do
poetic message.
philosophy as literature, or science as art. Although the bulk of my paper will follow the form of literary criticism, I intend to derive
I end my meditation with some concluding observations
thereby a number of philosophical insights concerning the ontology
about the relationship between form and thought, poetry at the
of light and its implications for cosmology.
limits of science, and—in the spirit of Einstein’s insistence on
a meaningful universe—the import of our ways of thinking
Keywords—relativity; Albert Einstein; light; sonnet; poetry
about light for the human condition.
I. I NTRODUCTION II. T HE P HYSICS OF L IGHT This paper is inspired by the significance of light in Albert
The significance of light in human affairs cannot be Einstein’s theories of relativity, both special and general, and
understated. Light, by means of the Sun, is our main source of the corresponding impact of Einstein’s thought on how we see
energy. It is also indispensable for vision and perception, and the universe and our place in it. Light, as a concept and a
for our ways of orienting ourselves with respect to the cosmos. phenomenon, can be richly discussed on both literal and
Little wonder that both religion and philosophy make use of figurative levels. My aim is to investigate the intersections
the metaphor of light in reference to divinity and wisdom. between the poetics and physics of light, paying special
According to Motwill and Breslin, “Light is the principal actor attention to poetic metaphors, symbols, and imagery
on the stage of the universe. It brings information from distant concerning the nature and uses of light. I emphasize the sonnet,
stars and galaxies. It tells us about the distant past. It plays a whose familiar fourteen-line, iambic pentameter structure is
key role in our understanding of the basic laws of Nature” [1]. immensely suited to its purpose, which is to argue or to
Although our emphasis is on the physics of light, it is illuminate. In line with this, I analyze twenty selected poems useful to look into the ways mythology and religion have about light, addressing the import of form in relation to conceptualized light before the advent of philosophy and content. As I will show, this echoes the spirit of the science. These early intuitions have certainly shaped our wave/particle debate about the nature of light—a debate that contemporary understanding. Egyptian mythology, with its remains contentious, as does the debate about the origins, stress on the afterlife, considers the sun god Ra to be the shape, and future of our universe. In grappling with the embodiment of resurrection. His eye represents enlightenment: significance of Einstein’s ideas by means of literature, I hope “The gaze of God was light. Light was God seeing” [2]. to show that poetry can be an important source of insight. This Genesis echoes this notion as it associates creation with the is especially true at the point where we seem to have reached
the very limits of science. appearance of light on the first day [3]. Zoroastrianism considers its supreme being, Ahura Mazda, as the god of light,
I begin with a section on the physics of light. I briefly whose opposite, Ahriman, is the personification of darkness discuss the nature and uses of light as conceptualized in the
[4]. This familiar dualism may be found in other belief history of scientific thinking about the subject, from the ancient
systems, denounced as heresies within the Christian tradition, Greeks to the quantum theorists. The current thinking on the
such as Manichaeism and Gnosticism [5]. nature of light asserts a duality between wave and particle.
These dualistic views equate light with spirit and darkness Meanwhile, the uses of light in human life involve such areas with matter, a theme taken up by Plato in his allegory of the as astronomy, astrophysics, optics, and photography. Both the cave. The world illumined by sunlight outside the cave These dualistic views equate light with spirit and darkness Meanwhile, the uses of light in human life involve such areas with matter, a theme taken up by Plato in his allegory of the as astronomy, astrophysics, optics, and photography. Both the cave. The world illumined by sunlight outside the cave
It was not until the modern era that a more radical shift from religion to science took place. According to Zajonc, in the hands of modern thinkers “sight becomes a question of mechanics rather than a species of a soul-spiritual activity….” [8] In the 17th century, the intellectual giant Isaac Newton undertook numerous experiments on the nature of light and color, advancing the corpuscular theory of light. Light rays, which he was able to separate through a prism, constituted the fundamental unit of light [9]. While his contemporary Robert Hooke argued that light was a wave phenomenon, Newton’s particle theory prevailed during his lifetime [10]. His ideas became the foundation for the science of optics, which made eyeglasses, telescopes, and microscopes possible.
A century later, Thomas Young passed two separate beams of light through two slits, which created interference patterns
like ripples, such as what waves might produce [11]. This famous experiment overturned the Newtonian view. And since waves apparently needed a medium in order to propagate, the wave theory of light necessitated the existence of a luminiferous ether, “a fluid that fills the universe and is, roughly or exactly, at rest with respect to the average motion of the stars” [12].
In the 19th century, an important shift in thinking about light drew attention to its relationship with other forces, such as electricity and magnetism, to say nothing of reinforcing its nature as a wave. This was made possible by Michael Faraday’s experiments, which in turn led to James Clerk Maxwell’s groundbreaking Electromagnetic Theory of Light. Faraday hooked separate coils of wire to a battery and to a galvanometer, respectively, and found that the meter detected a current at the moment of closing and opening the battery switch. An electrical wave caused by sudden changes in the current travelled through space between the coils [13]. Building on Faraday’s insights, Maxwell concluded that “Electromagnetic force travels as a wave, and electromagnetic waves have two components: an electric field and a magnetic field that vibrate at right angles to one another” [14]. As Park quotes Maxwell, “‘… light is an electromagnetic disturbance propagated through the field according to electromagnetic laws’” [15].
Maxwell’s theory has several important implications. First, it led to the eventual rejection of the luminiferous ether. The existence of force fields having been demonstrated, it now made sense to think of force as more of a thing than an action
[16]. This negated the need for an invisible fluid to explain the movement of light, since an electromagnetic wave could propagate in a vacuum [17]. In any case, the existence of the ether was problematic in that it contradicted the mechanical view of the universe and its only function seemed to be to permit the motion of light waves through space. Sure enough, in 1887 the existence of the ether was conclusively disproved by another famous experiment. A.A. Michelson and E.W. Morley performed a test intended to detect the ether wind through its influence on light waves. They used the interferometer, a device developed by Michelson, which split a light beam into two, sent them on different directions, and then brought them back together. If one part falls out of step with the other, so to speak, by means of a change of speed, the interferometer would detect interference bands when the beams are recombined. One beam was sent along the Earth’s orbital motion, the other in the opposite direction. If the ether wind existed, it would produce a resistance in the beam travelling across it, which would result in an interference pattern on the interferometer. However, there was no interference pattern, and regardless of where the device was directed, the light beams travelled at the same speed. Thus, Michelson and Morley concluded that there was no ether wind [18].
A second implication of Maxwell’s theory is that it allowed scientists to eventually situate light within the visible spectrum of electromagnetic waves, which also include radio waves, microwaves, infrared, ultraviolet, x-rays, and gamma rays [19]. All of these forms of radiation reveal rich information about
the universe, as the field of astrophysics shows 1 . The color spectrum is itself explicable in terms of different wavelengths of light, from high-frequency blue to low-frequency red [21].
We can deduce the direction toward which stars and galaxies move, via the principle of the Doppler effect. According to this principle, “A source of light approaching the observer will show a shift in its spectrum toward the blue end. A light source that is receding will be shifted toward the red end of the spectrum” [22]. Indeed, it was the redshift phenomenon that led Edwin Hubble to conclude that the universe was expanding.
Last but not least, Maxwell’s theory allowed for the accurate measurement of the speed of light 2 [23]. The equation
In August 2015, BBC News reports that the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey uses numerous space and ground-based telescopes to measure the energy output of over 200,000 galaxies across as broad a wavelength as possible. The data showed a decline in the energy output of stars, in support of the cosmological theory that the universe is flattening
Coming up with a reasonable value for the speed of light had been a challenge since the time of Galileo. He conducted an experiment in which one person on top of a hill turned on a lantern while another on a separate hill about a mile away raised his hand to signal his perception of the light. Not surprisingly, no appreciable interval was detected using this method [24], leading Galileo to think that the speed of light was more or less instantaneous. In 1676, however, the Danish mathematician Olaus Römer found that the speed of light was finite. Römer noticed that, contrary to the predictions of Newtonian mechanics, eclipses of Jupiter’s moon occurred 11 minutes early when Jupiter was closest to the earth, and 11 minutes late when Jupiter was furthest away. He reasoned that the variation in distance accounted for the time difference. This allowed him to come up with a figure for the speed of light that, although it was mistaken, was of the right order of magnitude. Finally, in 1849 the French physicist Hyppolyte Fizeau calculated the speed of light using a rotating wheel with 720 notches. Light Coming up with a reasonable value for the speed of light had been a challenge since the time of Galileo. He conducted an experiment in which one person on top of a hill turned on a lantern while another on a separate hill about a mile away raised his hand to signal his perception of the light. Not surprisingly, no appreciable interval was detected using this method [24], leading Galileo to think that the speed of light was more or less instantaneous. In 1676, however, the Danish mathematician Olaus Römer found that the speed of light was finite. Römer noticed that, contrary to the predictions of Newtonian mechanics, eclipses of Jupiter’s moon occurred 11 minutes early when Jupiter was closest to the earth, and 11 minutes late when Jupiter was furthest away. He reasoned that the variation in distance accounted for the time difference. This allowed him to come up with a figure for the speed of light that, although it was mistaken, was of the right order of magnitude. Finally, in 1849 the French physicist Hyppolyte Fizeau calculated the speed of light using a rotating wheel with 720 notches. Light
other side on a section of photographic film, presumably wave, which travelled at a fixed speed [26]. He measured this
creating a random pattern. But as the photons accumulate on speed, which amounted to around 186,000 miles per second.
the film over time, interference patterns emerge, such as what On a practical level, knowledge of the speed of light allowed
would form if light were a continuous wave. The paradox is astronomers to measure immense cosmic distances.
that “The solitary photon does indeed interfere with itself. One thing—the photon—seems somehow simultaneously related to
The advent of quantum physics would shift scientists’ view two distinct paths” [37]. In quantum mechanics, this about the nature of light from wave back to particle, and finally phenomenon is called “nonlocality,” which is “the situation toward a mind-boggling wave-particle duality. Max Planck, a that exists when an action at one place influences an action at scientist who had been working in the field of another place but there is no apparent link of cause and effect thermodynamics, posited that energy existed only in distinct between them” [38]. Depending on the circumstances, which packages or “quanta” [27]. The word “quantum” itself was are also influenced by the very act of scientific measurement or coined by Einstein in reference to the smallest units of energy investigation, light can behave as a wave (as in the case of [28]. Quantum experiments therefore reduce light to its diffraction) or a particle (as in the case of the photoelectric weakest possible level [29], i.e. to the level of the photon, the
effect).
“basic quantum of electromagnetic energy” [30]. The photon came to be called such as a homonym for the parts of the atom
French physicist Louis de Broglie believed that light’s according to Ernest Rutherford’s model: the nucleus which
wave-particle duality was also a characteristic of electrons. In contains the central mass and the electrons and protons that
fact, according to the science of quantum mechanics developed orbit it [31].
by Werner Heisenberg, this quantum ambiguity concerning the nature of light pervades the whole world [39]. However, as it is
Planck came up with a formula for calculating the energy not our intention here to settle this issue or resolve the apparent of oscillators, or vibrating bodies, using a value that came to be paradox, we shall move on to the last part of this section on the known as Planck’s constant. This powerful equation, which physics of light, which has to do with the import of Einstein’s links the energy of an electromagnetic wave to its frequency, special and general theories of relativity. can calculate “the intensity of radiation emitted at any
wavelength from any material at any temperature” [32]. Whether light is a wave or a particle is immaterial to Einstein’s application of Planck’s theory to the phenomenon of
Einstein’s special theory of relativity [40]. Whatever light’s photoelectric effect led to the quantum theory of light, the view
nature is, relativity describes the constancy of its speed in a that “light itself may be quantized, existing only in discrete
vacuum regardless of the respective motions of its source and units” [33].
observer. This notion contradicts Newtonian mechanics, according to which the speed of a moving object—without
The photoelectric or photoionization effect had been exception--is relative to the motion of both source and established by German physicist Heinrich Hertz, who found
observer.
that some forms of electromagnetic energy, such as ultraviolet light, can knock electrons out of their orbits, thus producing an
For example, if I were on a train moving west at 90 mph electric current [34]. In a 1905 paper for which he won the
and I lob a baseball down the aisle in the opposite direction at Nobel Prize, Einstein improved on Hertz’s theory using
100 mph, a stationary observer along the railroad track would Planck’s formula. He concluded that it was not the wattage but
perceive the ball moving at 10 mph, i.e. the difference between the wavelength that enabled electromagnetic energy to strip
the velocity of the ball as I throw it and the velocity of the train electrons from atoms: “… electrons absorbed the energy of the
going the opposite direction. From my perspective, however, I incoming light and carried it away with them” [35]. (Indeed,
observe the ball moving at 100 mph, because in my inertial Einstein’s explanation accounts for the penetrating power of X-
frame of reference, I am at rest and it is only the ball that is rays, which are on the high-frequency end of the
moving.
electromagnetic spectrum [36]). In other words, Einstein showed that the photoelectric effect was the result of a photon
For the most part, the special theory of relativity affirms the striking an electron—implying that light, at its most basic
Newtonian principle that “the laws of nature… are the same for level, was behaving like a particle.
everyone in uniform steady motion, that is to say, in an inertial frame of reference” [41]. However, relativity deviates from
So is light a wave or a particle? Unfortunately, the quantum Newton’s paradigm when it comes to the speed of light: the world turns out to be inhospitable to clear conclusions. Single-
speed of light in a vacuum remains constant in all inertial photon interference experiments, conducted to test the quantum
frames [42]. As Bennett notes, “the absoluteness of the speed theory of light, yielded paradoxical results. The experiments
of light is an experimentally verified fact,” as demonstrated by involved passing a beam of light through two separate slits.
Michelson and Morley’s experiment, mentioned earlier [43]. Individual photons, if they are discrete particles, should go
Returning to the previous example, if I turn on a flashlight while on the moving train, the speed of the beam will be 186,000 miles per second both for me and for the stationary
was focused to pass through a gap and was reflected by a mirror. It then retraced its path and was eclipsed when it hit the disc between notches.
observer along the railroad track.
Fizeau measured the time it took for light to make a round-trip journey,
Why is light so special? Simply put, it is the ultimate
factoring in the eclipses and the rotation of the wheel at the time of the eclipses. The value he arrived at deviated only 4% from the currently
barrier; nothing could outrace it without one’s mass becoming
accepted figure [25].
so heavy as to counteract the energy that one expends. As an so heavy as to counteract the energy that one expends. As an
Euclidian geometry (in which, for example, parallel lines never such that “Asking how you can go faster than light is
meet and the shortest distance between two points is a line). somewhat like asking how you can walk north from the North
Instead, he uses a four-dimensional Riemannian geometry, in Pole (from which all directions are south)” [44].
which time is one of the dimensions 5 [51]. The shortest distance between two points in curved space is called a
Obviously, Einstein’s physics is incommensurate with geodesic [53]. One of Einstein’s key assumptions is that Newton’s, the physics of “common sense,” as it were. Not only “space-time is not flat, as had been previously assumed: it is does relativity recognize the phenomenon of light as an curved, or ‘warped,’ by the distribution of mass and energy in exception to Newton’s laws of motion, it also rejects familiar
it” [54].
principles: (1) that time is independent of space, (2) that an object has absolute mass and dimensions, and (3) that the
Thus, when it comes to gravity, as Gardner explains, it is amount of matter in the universe is always constant, i.e. it can
not that the sun attracts the planets, or that the center of the neither be created nor destroyed.
earth pulls at the apple hanging on the branch. Rather, large bodies create dents in the surrounding space-time [55].
Newton rejected the Aristotelian idea of absolute rest, i.e. Consequently, whatever other bodies are there—say, the moon
he thought that there is no absolute position in space inasmuch in the vicinity of the earth—would either fall into an orbit as motion is relative to inertial frames of reference. However,
around the massive distorting object, or be deviated from their
he did subscribe to the idea of an absolute time; “now” is the original path 6 . Light is no exception: a beam passing by a same for everyone [45]. “Space” and “time” for Newton are massive object would bend due to gravity, creating what is fixed entities in which things move, as when I drive from my called a parallax distortion. Mass also increases proportionally house to my place of work, covering a distance of 15 miles in with gravity, and time tends to slow down in a very strong
45 minutes. Fourty-five minutes is the same for everyone
gravitational field [57].
regardless of whether they are moving, how fast, and in what direction. However, an alternative way of conceiving of
Einstein’s ideas underpin the theories at the very edge of “space” and “time” is in terms of dynamic quantities that
contemporary physics, for example, theories about black holes, interact with moving bodies and forces, so that “space-time”
dark matter, and the origins, shape, and end of our universe. turns out to have a variable structure. The special theory of
While Newtonian concepts are useful for explaining a vast relativity posits that as an object approaches the speed of light,
number of phenomena on earth (i.e. those involving weak time dilates or slows down [46]. As per the famous Twin
gravity and velocities much less than that of light), we need to Paradox 3 , it is in principle possible for you to leave your
go beyond them if we want an accurate picture of cosmic identical twin on earth as you travel in a spaceship moving near
reality, as Stannard argues [58]. Our understanding of light the speed of light. Upon your return, you will find that 10 years
would certainly be severely impoverished were we not to take have elapsed in your home planet while you have only aged six
relativity into consideration.
months. An object moving at the speed of light also gains mass and
HE P OETICS OF III. T L IGHT contracts in length. This is in keeping with Einstein’s famous
In his anthology of works entitled In Another Light, equation, E=mc 2 , which states that the total rest energy of a
Filipino poet and literary critic Gémino Abad memorably body is the product of its mass and the square of the speed of
traces the connection between light and the poetic form: “The light (c), a constant number. As the velocity of a body
poet’s task… is always to try and see things in another light; increases, its energy and mass increase proportionately. This
and the critic’s task is merely a variation—to see the poem by equation essentially indicates that—contrary to Newton’s law
its own light” [59]. Abad adopts Wallace Stevens’ implicit of conservation of mass—matter can be converted into energy, 4 hierarchy between imagination and reason, whereby the former
and vice versa . A practical example of this transmutation of governs the latter in the literary sensibility. Abad emphasizes matter into energy concerns the Sun, which converts the
the poem as an artistic object, which implies the freedom of the immense energies of atomic nuclei into light [49].
artist. The work of poetry, as experience, is primarily one of Einstein’s special theory of relativity, developed in 1905,
was called such to distinguish it from the general theory of
relativity, which he formulated a decade later. Calder calls this
Gardner explains the alternatives to Euclidian geometry, such as elliptical
theory “Einstein’s cleverest brainchild” [50]. It augments the
geometry (in which parallel lines meet at the poles of the ellipse) and
special theory by factoring in gravity (and by doing so, tells us
hyperbolic geometry (in which parallel lines deviate from each other). The
about what happens to light when affected by gravity). Against differences among these geometries are determined by the curvature of the Newtonian notion that gravity is the attractive force space: If it is exactly zero, space is a plane that goes on forever; if it is more
than zero, space is an ellipse that closes back on itself; and if it is less than
between two bodies, Einstein’s paradigm conceives of it rather
zero, space is a hyperbola that also extends to infinity. Riemannian
as a quality of the curvature of space-time.
geometry, like the latter two geometries, is non-Euclidian; however, unlike them, it does not have a constant curvature, allowing objects to undergo
distortions as they move from one place to another [52]. Bennett notes that this thought experiment only constitutes a “paradox” if we
6 One advantage of Einstein’s view of gravity over Newton’s is that it solves
4 look at it from a “common sense” or Newtonian perspective [47]. the conundrum of “action at a distance,” a phenomenon in which one body Bova notes that relativity revises the conservation law in this way: “the
seems to attract another for no discernible reason. Gravitation, instead of amount of matter-plus-energy in the universe cannot be changed, but matter
being a force of attraction, is understood as the inevitable result of space- can be converted into energy and vice versa” [48].
time’s shape [56].
transfiguration [60]. Illumination or understanding has to do line structure tends to lend itself to the development of an idea with creativity in both crafting and reading literary works.
and its related summation.
Poetry has also been compared to a light-oriented art: In English, the sonnet typically follows the cadence most photography. Sandler makes the case that, particularly in the
natural to speech, i.e. iambic pentameter (a five-stress, ten- work of Russian artist Arkady Dragomoshchenko, both poetry
syllable line) [66]. It usually contains a volta or turn, an often and photography function as a form of “second order
clear division in thought that separates the first part (the representation.” Both perform the task of making visible “the
premises, as it were) and the second part (the conclusion) [67]. idea of the thing” or “the mind’s work” [61]. This echoes
The sonnet tends to be “asymmetrical” or “top-heavy,” since Abad’s description of the light-work of poetry, so to speak, as
the presentation of the opposition often demands more space fundamentally (though not wholly) rational and philosophical.
than its inevitable resolution [68].
But what is the connection between the physics and poetics In terms of rhyme scheme and versification, the two main of light, insofar as both are distinct ways of conceptualizing the
after their most famous same phenomenon? First, it’s important to look into definitions
types
of sonnets—named
practitioners—are the Petrarchan sonnet and the Shakesperean and forms. A rather hackneyed description for poetry is
sonnet. A third form was developed by the Elizabethan poet “heightened language,” which pertains to the artistic use of
Edmund Spencer, called the Spenserian sonnet or “the link,” words to convey meaning. According to Tiempo, in the age of
distinguished by its interlacing rhyme scheme [69]. Levin free verse, it has become challenging to tell the difference
describes the variations in the sonnet structure as follows: between poetry and prose. Many beginning poets tend to produce what is essentially prose cut up into stanzas. Thus, she
Sometimes the sonnet looks like a little underlines the distinction between the two forms:
rectangular box….; sometimes we see a bipartite structure with a white space, a gap,
Prose is direct statement and direct separating the first eight lines (the octave) exposition, whether written in versified lines
from the second six (the sestet). Sometimes or in paragraphs. On the other hand, poetry
we see a form subdivided into two quatrains has traditionally been acknowledged as
or four-line units, followed by two tercets indirect, as structured in metaphor…. [62]
(units of three lines) or we see a series of three quatrains, and then a single couplet
The governing element in poetry is “the structuring of (two lines) standing alone. [70] metaphor,” which operates in two ways: first, through a highly
symbolic image or situation; and second, through the use of In the succeeding analysis, I begin with free verse poems “internal” literary instruments. The latter are the “less visible”
followed by sonnets. The comparison of the sonnet with free earmarks of poetic form, involving “tone, nuances,
verse is intended to emphasize the effect of structure on understatement, suggestiveness, indirection, thematic tension,
content, i.e. on how the poetic piece makes use of the contrast, ellipses, fresh stratagems and insights, inventive
metaphor, symbol, and imagery of light. reproductive use of words….” and the like. Apart from these internal limits, there are also external ones, which refer to the
My survey of free verse poetry about light yields at least more obvious mechanical characteristics such as “length,
four distinct themes:
formation of lines, meter, rhyme, rhythm, euphonic diction patterns, juxtaposition, typographical idiosyncrasies,” etc. [63].
A. Light as knowledge
In Tiempo’s taxonomy of poetic forms, the external limits do This theme runs through works that refer to scientific not by themselves determine the difference between prose and
discovery, intuitive understanding, philosophical analysis, and poetry, which means that there can be prose-like poems and
education. These views of knowledge run the gamut from poem-like prose. Rather, the key determining factor is the 7 negative to positive, admiring to critical, alluding to different
metaphoric operation . physical characteristics of light to convey meaning. In this section, I shall be presenting and critiquing
In “The Man-Moth,” Elizabeth Bishop introduces an insect- examples of poems about light, first in free verse and then in
like creature—the titular character—who emerges at night the form of the sonnet. As one of the traditional or standard
from under the sidewalk and is attracted to the moon glow. formats 8 of poetry, the sonnet is particularly illustrative of the
Seized by the desire to “investigate as high as he can climb,” meaning of light as illumination, because of its traditional use
he therefore scales buildings, “his shadow dragging like a as a vehicle for reasoning or argument. The Italian word
photographer’s cloth behind him.” However, he fails to reach sonetto, meaning “a small song,” points to its lyrical and
the moon and inevitably returns to the “pale subways of courtly origins; a perennial subject of this poetic form is erotic
cement.” There he boards a train where he “always seats love [65]. However, more importantly, its succinct fourteen-
himself facing the wrong way,” travelling backwards. The poem ends with an image of the disappointed sadness of the
Man-Moth, expressed in his eye, which is “all dark pupil,/ an In this sense, Tiempo’s framework accommodates the new style of language entire night itself,/ whose haired horizon tightens/ as he stares
poetry. The latter militates against the formalist tradition with its affinity for
back,/ and closes up the eye.” He sheds a tear “cool as from the
prose, resistance to rhyme and meter, and the rejection of a unified authorial
underground springs and pure enough to drink” [71].
8 voice [64]. These also include the villanelle, the sestina, the pantoum, the ode, the limerick, the haiku, and the renga, among others.
In her well-known short poem “Tell All the Truth But Tell It Slant—,” Emily Dickinson compares the Truth with light. It must be told “slant,” or with a certain angle or prevarication. It is described as “Too bright for our infirm Delight,” as how lightning appears to children for whom the phenomenon must
be explained. “The Truth must dazzle gradually,” else the alternative is blindness [72].
Delight’s uneasy relationship with light is also mentioned in Richard Eberhart’s “‘A Hard Intellectual Light,’” seeming to echo Dickinson’s advice to temper the glare. Light is cast as the opposite of all delight, which it kills. Shining from the perspective of distance, it tends to expose the body’s desires, protecting it and yet causing pain at the same time: “For the hard intellectual light/ Will lay the flesh with nails.” The light becomes a symbol of “The moral grandeur of man,” the culmination of all our noble pursuits—at least “Until my hard vision blears,/ And Poverty and Death return….” The poem ends with a tone of resignation, similar to Bishop’s piece, as the hard intellectual light “… brings the solemn, inward pain/ Of truth into the heart again” [73].
Finally, “Care of Light” by Gémino Abad, told from the first person, reminisces about the author’s much-loved retired teacher, whose deserted house he visits nightly in order to switch on certain lights inside it and out: the lamp in the library, “the vigil light for the Sacred Heart,” the bulb outside the kitchen, and the halogen lights “below the front eaves.” He tells of how his teacher, who “needs to be always in control,” lives now with her sister because she has become “old and frail” and “can hardly walk,/ deaf and half-blind, and often ill….” As the author faithfully performs his duty, he recalls the same sense of duty and purpose exhibited by his teacher during his student days. “… her shoulders hunched,” she would “teach with a passion that, before the imperious glare/ of her questioning, drove us bleating/ on the open plain of the world’s sharp winds.” In the last paragraph, the author likens himself to an iconic character in Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s The Little Prince (not named in the poem): “I’m her lamplighter on her silent asteroid….” At day’s end, he walks down his teacher’s street under the light of the street lamps, expecting that “the sun too will rise/ tomorrow, and I shall be back” [74].
All of these poems about light as knowledge express a certain reverence for it, constructing it as an awesome force that inspires the passion to learn. The first three are cautionary tales about our fascination with light, which can be beyond the mind’s finite capacity to understand. This tragic finale leads to the ultimate disillusionment of the Man-Moth; the jaded cynicism of a Truth told “slant”; and the stark dichotomy between the eager pleasures of the body and the harsh austerity of rationality and logic. Of the four pieces, it is Abad’s “Care of Light” that presents knowledge as an absolute good, though it qualifies this claim by contextualizing it within the author’s own experiences with a valiant and inspiring teacher. In the hands of a responsible mentor, knowledge becomes a virtue worthy of the faithful performance of our duties.
B. Light as life force or spirit
A couple of pieces evoke the religious significance of light, associating it with the energy of the soul or psyche and with mystical experience.
“The Groundhog” by Richard Eberhart is memorable for its unusual imagery: the corpse of a groundhog, a large rodent native to North America, described over time as aflame with energy until it is white and desiccated. The poem opens in June, when the persona comes upon a dead groundhog. “There lowly in the vigorous summer/ His form began its senseless change.” Out of macabre curiosity, he pokes the maggot- infested body with a stick, and “The fever arose, became a flame/ And Vigour circumscribed the skies,/ Immense energy in the sun….” A few months later, in autumn, he returns to the spot “to see/ The sap gone out of the groundhog,” though its skeletal form has retained some moisture. The next summer, “There was only a little hair left,/ And bones bleaching in the sunlight/ Beautiful as architecture;/ I watched them like a geometer….” After three years, there is no sign of the groundhog. The persona, touched by its absence, reflects upon great people in history, thinking “Of Alexander in his tent;/ Of Montaigne in his tower,/ Of Saint Theresa in her wild lament” [75].
The other poem, “The Properties of Light” by Eric Gamalinda, describes mystical places distinguished by their quality of light. It opens in “Mid-October in Central Park,” where the persona beholds an elm. It is “burning with a light/ grown accustomed to its own magnificence.” He is reminded of how he “used to imagine/ the chakra like this—a hole in the soul/ from the top of the head, where the light of knowing/ can shimmer through….” He recalls his brother’s religious epiphany “as we sat chanting in a temple in Manila,” and compares it with his own encounters with a similar spiritual light “on a river in Bangkok, or pixeled across/ the shattered facades of Prague….” He then returns to the elm and contemplates all the places the same light has travelled: “it has passed all over the world, has given shape/ to cities, cast glamour over the eyes of the skeptic,/ so that it comes to me
informed with the wonder/ of many beings.” He compares his soul with the tree, “ringed with changes” and “as old as light,” concluding that “there is no other way to live than this,/ still, grateful, and full of longing” [76].
Both these poems stress the materiality of light, or its connection to the body. After all, religious experience may manifest in physical symptoms such as trembling or shortness of breath. Light is also likened to a fire, explicitly in Eberhart’s poem and implicitly in Gamalinda’s. Eberhart beholds a bonfire of energy as the life force gradually leaves the corpse of the groundhog. Meanwhile, Gamalinda notes that the elm, a majestic tree, “has changed early,” donning the fiery colors of autumn. Light as fire certainly connotes religious passion; saints and martyrs—mentioned in both poems—are often depicted as burning with inner conviction, and sometimes burning at the stake. This aspect of light hints of transcendence, of the ecstatic heights that creatures—from the lowly rodent to the world traveller to the empire builder–must surely, if only occasionally, experience.
C. Light as power and danger abandoned by the woman makes him happy. Turning his face Two poems associate the glint of light, whether from a
toward the river, he feels the wind brush against him. “I feel powerful animal’s eyes or a butcher’s knife, with the potential
like the light of the river Adige,” he writes, concluding, “By for violence.
this time, we are both an open secret” [79]. William Blake’s famous lyrical poem “Tyger, Tyger” is an
The second poem, “The Forge” by Seamus Heaney, utilizes ode to the puissant aspect of Nature, which exists side by side
the contrast between darkness and light as it describes the craft with its quiescent part. The first stanza addresses the titular
of the blacksmith, a symbol for the artist. “All I know is a door creature: “Tyger! Tyger! burning bright/ In the forests of the
into the dark,” the poem begins. From the outside, the persona night, / What immortal hand or eye/ Could frame thy fearful
hears “the hammered anvil’s short-pitched ring” and imagines symmetry?” The poem goes on to describe the vital
“The unpredictable fantail of sparks.” He believes the anvil characteristics of the animal that rightfully make it the lord of
occupies the center of the room, like an altar, with one end like the jungle: the fire of its eyes; its powerful shoulder, sinews,
a unicorn’s horn and the other end square. Finally, he imagines and heart; and the “furnace” of its brain. The Tyger embodies
the blacksmith who labors over it, occasionally peering out of “deadly terrors,” and the poet wonders, “Did he who made the
his door. Then he returns to his work, “grunts and goes in, with Lamb make thee?” [77].
a slam and a flick/ To beat real iron out, to work the bellows” [80].
Meanwhile, “Butcher Shop” by Charles Simic takes place at night, all the more to emphasize the fluorescent glow inside
Finally, “Zero Gravity” by Eric Gamalinda paints an
a butcher’s store, “like the light in which the convict digs his elegiac picture of a family, who once gathered together to tunnel.” Peering into the window, the persona sees a stained
watch news of the first moon landing on TV. The luminescent apron hanging on a hook, “The blood on it smeared into a map/
glow of the historic event caught on video, enmeshed with the Of the great continents of blood….” There are also “knives that
light of the TV screen, fills the living room. The persona glitter like altars/ In a dark church,” where people consign “the
imagines the surface of the moon as “angel heavy,/ idea-pure.” cripple” and “the imbecile.” Finally, there is “a wooden block
He describes its dunes as “lit/ like ancient silk, like clandestine where bones are broken” and which the poet—a consumer of
pearl.” The moment shared by the family is filled with the hope meat—describes as a place “Where I am fed.” The poem ends
that humankind feels on the occasion of a landmark with him hearing a voice deep in the night [78].
achievement. However, tragic events are foreshadowed by the following lines: “It didn’t matter,/ at that moment, where our
While the poems are not about light per se, they use the lives would lead:/ father would disown one brother,/ one sister imagery of light to introduce animalistic reality. Blake’s Tyger
was going to die. Not yet unhappy,/ we were ready to walk on evokes our fascination with what is inherently dangerous, as do
the moon.” The poem ends with a description of the future as the inanimate objects in Simic’s butcher shop. These fearful
“a religion we could believe in” [81].
things are spotlighted at nighttime, when their potential for violence “burns bright” or “glitters.” Both poems underscore
All three poems are future-oriented, in which light animals’ natural tendency for violence, whether they are
functions as a means of seeing the possible. Each narrator tries human or non-human, and the “fearful symmetry” of killing
to picture a desired outcome not yet in his grasp: a romantic and devouring each other in order to survive.
encounter, a finished metalwork, and familial happiness. Each event is suffused with light, such as the contrasting brightness
D. Light as creativity and imagination of a woman’s black hair under the sun, sparks from a smithy, and televised moon glow. In each case, the imagined scenario
A last batch of free verse poems deals with different kinds does not actually come into fruition, but its mere possibility is of imagining: romantic, artistic, and social. They associate light
enough to give energy to the piece.
with the human being’s creative capacity to picture a possible outcome or truth, no matter how difficult or challenging it is to
In sum, free verse poetry about light mostly seems to achieve it.
emphasize day-to-day conceptions about light, especially as it pertains to practical realms of activities (e.g. science and
“The Secret of Light” by James Wright, a prose poem set in education, religion, art, family). In contrast, sonnets about light Verona, is told from the perspective of a man sitting on a park
present a more high-brow interpretation, tending to deal with bench. As he enjoys the morning by the riverside, he sees a
more abstract philosophical or speculative issues that have no “startling” woman whose hair he goes into some detail to
easy answers. The pieces discussed below predate their free describe: “Her hair is black as the inmost secret of light in a
verse cousins by decades or centuries, exhibiting the more perfectly cut diamond, a perilous black, a secret light that must
sober tone of poetry from an earlier age. They associate light have been studied for many years before the anxious and
with comparatively lofty concepts. The following themes disciplined craftsman could achieve the necessary balance
emerge from my survey of sonnets about light: between courage and skill to stroke the strange stone and take
the one chance he would ever have to bring that secret to
A. Light as law and source of meaning light.” Before he could approach her, however, she walks
away. The persona knows he would never see her again: “I am
A number of sonnets contrast the sense of being lost with afraid her secret might never come to light in my lifetime.”
that of being found. In each of these pieces, light becomes a Nonetheless, he entertains the thought that she would bring
means of orientation; alternatively, the absence of it is shown “some other man’s secret face to light, as somebody brought
as having dire consequences.
mine.” He declares that the emptiness of the park bench
“Lucifer in Starlight” by George Meredith imagines the “Sad Steps” by Philip Larkin, an 18-line sonnet-like piece, Prince of Darkness hovering over the earth “On a starred
alludes to an older sonnet by Sir Philip Sidney, from the night.” He passes over Africa’s sands and the Arctic snows.
latter’s Astrophil and Stella. Sidney’s piece begins with the But his ascendance is arrested as he approaches the stars, and
line “With how sad steps, O Moon, though climb’st the skies!” remembers the old revolt he once led against heaven. He