Above: Cary Grant and Grace Kelly on the Riviera in “To Catch a Thief” (1955)
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I must have been absent from school the day my English teacher taught poetry appreciation. So, I have never been a fan. I love to read, but I prefer any kind of prose to any kind of poetry. When I take the time to study a great poem, or have it explained to me, I can be pleasantly surprised and find it profound and enjoyable. I do see why many people love poetry. But not me. It usually takes me too much time to figure out what is being said.
I am not alone in this. John Ashbery (1927-2017) has been called the most influential poet of his time. His poetry has been described as enigmatic, dense, surreal, ambiguous, and incomprehensible. Ashbery’s first book of poetry won the Yale Young Poets Prize in 1956. One of the judges in that competition was another famous poet, W. H. Auden. Auden said later that he did not understood a single word of the winning manuscript. This is what John Ashbery himself says about poetry: “Poetry describes what everyone already knows in language nobody can understand.” Right.
That being said, I have a poem for you today—one that needs some explanation. But it is worth the time it takes to understand this poem because it left me with some powerful and unforgettable images; and that, I have been told, is what good poetry can do for us.
The title of the poem itself needs to be explained. “Memento mori” is Latin for “Remember you must die.” A ‘memento’ is an item that serves to remind us of a person or past event. A ‘memento mori’ is an item, perhaps a model or painting of a skull, that serves as a reminder of our future death. These were popular in the Middle Ages, but not so much anymore. (See: Emailmeditation #1252)
The poem applies this ‘memento mori’ concept to something we are familiar with– all the old movies that we love and all the glamorous stars of the past. The poem reminds us that these stars, who still entertain us, are now dead: “Death has dominion even over the purebred idols of the silver screen,” it says. They look larger than life—but they aren’t. And so, “God help us, if death can granulate them, what about the poor unglamorous rest of us?” Granulate. That is a powerful word choice to describe what happens to our bodies. ‘Ashes to ashes and dust to dust’ are familiar words, and we may grow immune to their impact. But ‘granulate’ is unfamiliar, and so can still give us a jolt. It is jolting and shocking and terrifying to remember what will become of us. And so, as the poem says, those old images can “speak to me,” bring me to my senses, and make me say “God help us.” Here is the poem. Read it slowly and more than once.
Memento Mori
The ancient monks saw the handwriting on the skull.
Whenever in their hearts they lusted for excess,
Their grinning scold was there to remind them
Of the grave’s everlasting austerity.
Today we have a memento mori less stark,
Much better suited to an age of artifice.
I mean the old Hollywood movie, that phoenix
Rising from the film cans to undeceive us,
To tell us death has dominion even over
The purebred idols of the silver screen,
Those who made life seem larger and are no more.
Chaplin cooking his shoe in the frozen Klondike,
Bette Davis imperiously puffing a cigarette,
Cary Grant and Grace Kelly outshining the Riviera—
How woe–betiding that these glittering are now
No more than dust guests in the deadfall.
For God help us, if death can granulate them,
What about the poor unglamorous rest of us?
Laugh if you like, but when I look up and see
The late Charlie shiver or the late Bette pout
Or hear the late Cary and Grace banter—well,
I swear, not the angel of death pinwheeling down,
Not Savonarola preaching by torchlight on Golgotha,
Could speak to me as these on the place of the skull.
-John Martin, in First Things, April 2000, p. 49.
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Psalm 90:3 — You (Lord) turn people back to dust, saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.”
Psalm 90:12 — Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Psalm 116:3-4 — The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came over me; I was overcome by distress and sorrow. Then I called on the name of the Lord: “Lord, save me!”
Psalm 23:4 — Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.
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O Jesus, when I shall depart from this world, speak to my soul those loving words that you once spoke to a dying thief: “Today you shall be with me in paradise.” O Lord Jesus, remember me; and when my tongue cannot speak, when my eyes fail, when my ears are shut, when my heart is stopped, and when my flesh turns to dust; let my soul still rejoice in you, and awaken me to eternal life. Amen.
–Miles Coverdale (1488-1569), English reformer and translator of the Bible
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