Today’s poem is by Christian Wiman, an American poet and editor born in 1966 and raised in the small west Texas town of Snyder.[1] He graduated from Washington and Lee University and has taught at Northwestern University, Stanford University, Lynchburg College in Virginia, and the Prague School of Economics. In 2003, he became editor of the oldest American magazine of verse,
I believe the word you are looking for is "Melancholy" The poet is coming to grips, quite well and with humorous irony, with the changes of the people around him. Great commentary.
I'm late getting to this because I only now realized The Daily Poem is back (hooray!), but I had a slightly different, although related, take on it which I thought I'd share for what it's worth:
I felt like the main body of the poem expresses his sense of instability, difficulty keeping up with the changes that he sees around him and in his friends, and the confusion he sees and feels himself (admitting his own doubts in the penultimate line). But the last line seems to turn, and slow down, so that in the midst of all the confusion and uncertainty about what to believe, he realizes or remembers that the belief he holds onto firmly himself, what holds him steady through all the confusing changes, is his belief in his friends (I don't think necessarily in what they believe, but in them).
I might be subconsciously comparing it to the fragment with which he starts his memoir "My Bright Abyss":
My God my bright abyss/ Into which all my longing will not go/ Once more I come to the edge of all I know/And believing nothing believe in this:
Which seems in some ways like it could be a complete statement of belief on its own.
Thank you for doing these podcasts, I really enjoy them and the chance to discover and enjoy the poems!
I believe the word you are looking for is "Melancholy" The poet is coming to grips, quite well and with humorous irony, with the changes of the people around him. Great commentary.
I think the way you read it was a great interpretation of the poem!
I'm late getting to this because I only now realized The Daily Poem is back (hooray!), but I had a slightly different, although related, take on it which I thought I'd share for what it's worth:
I felt like the main body of the poem expresses his sense of instability, difficulty keeping up with the changes that he sees around him and in his friends, and the confusion he sees and feels himself (admitting his own doubts in the penultimate line). But the last line seems to turn, and slow down, so that in the midst of all the confusion and uncertainty about what to believe, he realizes or remembers that the belief he holds onto firmly himself, what holds him steady through all the confusing changes, is his belief in his friends (I don't think necessarily in what they believe, but in them).
I might be subconsciously comparing it to the fragment with which he starts his memoir "My Bright Abyss":
My God my bright abyss/ Into which all my longing will not go/ Once more I come to the edge of all I know/And believing nothing believe in this:
Which seems in some ways like it could be a complete statement of belief on its own.
Thank you for doing these podcasts, I really enjoy them and the chance to discover and enjoy the poems!
I have always loved this poem.
Listeners may also be interested in this from Chris Wiman (though it is not poetry, but memoir):
https://harpers.org/archive/2023/01/white-buffalo/
I caught that Twitter thread too and am so grateful y'all did this one. The more I sit with it, the more complex it becomes.