Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"Obsession" by Robert Desnos is a mesmerizing and vivid exploration of desire, intertwining elements of the natural world with profound emotional states to capture the intensity and complexity of longing. Through a cascade of surreal and richly textured imagery, Desnos delves into the depths of obsession, portraying love and desire as forces as powerful and unpredictable as the sea and as infinite as the night sky.

The poem opens with the speaker presenting tokens of the sea—seaweed and a comb—as offerings to the object of their obsession, immediately setting the scene with elements that are both earthly and symbolic. The seaweed, tangled with sea foam, and the comb, an object of beauty and grooming, become metaphors for the attempt to order and make sense of the tumultuous emotions associated with desire.

Desnos's comparison of the beloved's hair to the clouds, "neatly fixed than the clouds with the wind with celestial crimson glowing in them," evokes a sense of ethereal beauty and untouchable perfection. The beloved is elevated to a celestial plane, their hair embodying the chaotic yet mesmerizing patterns of the natural world, alive with "quiverings of life" and capable of eliciting deep, sobbing emotions.

The poem intricately weaves together the themes of life and death, beauty and danger, with the sea serving as a recurring motif that symbolizes both the allure and the peril of obsession. Desnos describes the beloved's hair as dying "with the waves and the reefs of the strand," suggesting that the object of desire is as mutable and ephemeral as the sea itself, capable of inspiring both profound love and acute despair.

The imagery of the comb tracing the "stars buried in their rapid and silky flow" across the beloved's hair introduces a cosmic dimension to the poem, linking the personal experience of desire to the vast, uncontrollable forces of the universe. This action, though intimate, hints at the speaker's desire to navigate and perhaps even control the infinite expanse of their longing.

Desnos's portrayal of a star dying "like your lips" that "turn blue as the wine spilled on the tablecloth" further amplifies the poem's exploration of desire as an experience marked by beauty, loss, and the passage of time. The comparison of the beloved's lips to a dying star encapsulates the fleeting nature of beauty and the inevitable decay that follows intense emotion.

The poem culminates in a haunting scene of coldness and ruin, with the speaker recalling the "impasse where I knew you" and a house marked by "a forgotten number." This memory, set against the backdrop of mines and anthracite-covered roofs, juxtaposes the warmth of remembered love with the desolation of its aftermath.

"Obsession" closes with the comb in the beloved's hair symbolizing "the end of the world," a metaphor for the apocalyptic force of unrequited or lost love. Desnos masterfully crafts a landscape where love and obsession intertwine with elements of the natural and supernatural world, creating a poem that is as deeply moving as it is visually stunning. Through "Obsession," Desnos invites readers into the heart of desire, revealing the exquisite pain and beauty that lie within.

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