Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Fanny Howe’s "The Angels" is a meditation on suffering, transformation, and the inheritance of pain. With its subdued tone and ethereal imagery, the poem reflects on how suffering is transmuted into something nourishing for others—suggesting that pain, rather than being an end in itself, can serve as a gift, albeit an unconscious and troubling one.

The poem begins with a contrast: "The lassitude of angels is one thing / but how the gold got under their skin I don’t know." The angels are depicted as weary, passive beings, but something luminous—gold—has been embedded within them. This mysterious quality suggests that their suffering has somehow given them value or illumination. Gold, often associated with divinity, purity, and transformation, here seems to imply a kind of alchemy: suffering transformed into something precious, though the speaker remains uncertain as to how this process occurs.

The setting of the "Fields of Mourning" immediately evokes a space of grief and remembrance. In Virgil’s Aeneid, the Fields of Mourning are a part of the underworld where those who suffered tragic love dwell. But Howe’s version of this realm is timeless, suspended: "where there is no morning / only the end of night." This absence of morning suggests a perpetual twilight, an in-between space where grief is sustained rather than resolved. It is within this realm that transformation occurs: "the dull gold of transforming suffering." The adjective "dull" modifies the usual brilliance of gold, emphasizing that this transformation is neither immediate nor entirely luminous—it is muted, subdued.

The central metaphor of the poem likens suffering to milk: "what is passed on— as milk is pain— / passed on to those we love, becoming nourishment, good luck for them." This striking comparison suggests that suffering is an inheritance, something given to the next generation not as an intentional burden, but as a form of sustenance. Like a mother’s milk, pain nourishes, shaping those who receive it. The idea of pain as "good luck" is paradoxical, implying that hardship, though difficult, is also a kind of fortune, something that grants resilience or wisdom. The poem does not moralize suffering but presents it as an unavoidable part of existence, something that, for better or worse, gets transmitted through love.

Howe then shifts to color as a means of understanding experience: "Some colors imply an ease with indirect experience." This cryptic statement suggests that certain aspects of life—perhaps beauty, or art—allow for a kind of detachment, a way of experiencing suffering without being wholly consumed by it. The "Fields of Mourning," as described in the next lines, become a space where time is marked not by linear progression but by "the dream it inspires." This suggests that in grief, reality becomes secondary to imagination, that memory and longing take precedence over tangible experience.

The angels, who "hang out limp and gold," remain passive figures, embodying the paradox of suffering and radiance. Yet, despite their weary acceptance, they are "suddenly anxious if told / what trembling joy their suffering has brought." This conclusion is key to the poem’s emotional depth. The angels, like those who suffer in life, may not wish to know that their pain has benefited others. There is an unease in acknowledging that suffering can lead to joy—not for oneself, but for those who inherit the transformed grief. The phrase "trembling joy" underscores the complexity of this inheritance: the joy is real, but it is fragile, imbued with the echoes of sorrow.

In "The Angels," Howe presents suffering not as something to be resolved or transcended, but as a force that moves through generations, transforming into something both painful and nourishing. The poem suggests that while suffering shapes us, its meaning remains ambiguous, troubling even those who carry its gold within them. It is a meditation on endurance, inheritance, and the unspoken ways in which love transmits not only joy, but also sorrow.

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