Sumthin

Triste Triste – Daniel Koton In “Triste, Triste”, Harwood explores the tensions between the creative spirit and the limitations of the earthly. The concept of the artists’ imagination as a separate entity, able to transcend the physical is a rather Romantic one. However Harwood does not limit the idea to only artists or poets in particular; she extends the creative drive to mean individual, spiritual passion. This allows the poem to appeal to a wider audience, as the reader is enticed with the idea of possessing a passionate self. The ‘space between love and sleep” is an intangible time between two definite states of universal human experience. The phrase incites the reader to reflect on such moments in their own life, and to consider “space” with renewed significance. The poignant image of the heart that “mourns in its prison” conveys the idea of the necessity of liberating the “spirit”. The Resurrection imagery provides further significance to the creative self, as it is aligned with the Christ, walking “to Easter light”. Harwood, through her use of personification and imagery challenges the reader to appreciate the indefinite moments of passionate afterglow as opportunity to liberate the imagination. However there is a sense of regret at the fleeting nature of imagination that permeates the poem. “Triste” is an archaic word for sad or mournful; the repetition of “Triste, Triste” in the title connotes Harwood’s lingering reflection on the loss of inspiration. Harwood creates a sense of urgent desire to transcend the “tomb of bone” with the repetition of “away”, yet there is something divorced in the divine imagery that follows. The spirit “walking alone” represents the individual experience in the imaginative world; here there is no intimacy, only the intensity of “unbearable light”. This is reminiscent of the theory of the sublime where the light overwhelms but still holds a magnetism. The mechanical image of the body as “fallen instruments” recalls the reader to the earthly world. Harwood contrasts the divine light of the second stanza with the “darkness” of tangible “sleep and love” using enjambment and repetition to draw attention to the ending of imaginative inspiration. Harwood acknowledges that the temporal cannot venture into the world of the spiritual, “walking above”, wherein lies the tension between the two states. The heart “cries” for connection in a desperate tone, giving the ultimatum for imaginative freedom or physical anguish. In the last stanza though, Harwood reunites the spirit with the corporal self, conveying both the necessity of intimacy in the physical world and the evanescence of imaginative passion. In order to restore “mortal comfort”, the “loved other is held”, doubly meaning the speakers heart and romantic lover. The use of enjambment for the word “held” emphasises the earthly need to posses, to draw certainty from and extend what is tangible in contrast to the spiritual journey to ambiguous “light”. The return to the temporal world is evident as the “spirit’s light” is “dispelled”, and Harwood conveys the ease with which its previous intensity “falls from its dream to the deep”. The word “deep” returns the reader to the first line, signifying that sleep is imminent, and the “space” has passed. Despite the sense of “peace”, a regretful tone pervades the poems end, where Harwood recognises that for the heart to “waken to...paradise” the creative self must lie dormant. By narrating the converse relationship between a personified heart and spirit, Harwood alerts the reader to the impossibility of simultaneous peace and passion.