Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

May Swenson’s "Fountains of Aix" captures the dynamic interplay of art and nature as embodied in the fountains of Aix-en-Provence, France. Through vivid imagery and inventive language, the poem animates the sculptural figures, evoking their perpetual dialogue with water, a central element that simultaneously enlivens and erodes them. Swenson?s poem is a meditation on movement, transformation, and the ways art interacts with the living world.

The poem opens with a striking image of the fountains: "Beards of water / some of them have." This personification immediately imbues the sculptures with a human-like vitality, casting water as a defining characteristic that both adorns and animates the figures. Swenson’s focus on "whistles of water" and "faces astonished" suggests an interplay between the inanimate stone and the vitality of the flowing water, blurring the boundary between life and artifice. The astonishment of the faces may reflect the poet?s own wonder at the endless dynamism of the fountains, as well as their timeless endurance.

Swenson layers her descriptions with sensory richness, moving fluidly between the visual and tactile. The "jaws of lions snarling water / through green teeth over chins of moss" creates a vivid tableau where the static sculptures seem to embody feral vitality. Moss, a natural growth upon the stone, underscores the symbiosis between human-made art and nature. The "green teeth" emphasize how the water?s movement nurtures life even as it gradually wears away at the stone.

Throughout the poem, Swenson explores the tension between permanence and change. The dolphins "toss jets of water" in a scene of theatrical exuberance, while children "riding swans" and the "solemn curly-headed bull" suggest a tableau frozen in marble yet continuously animated by water. The water, endlessly in motion, contrasts with the stillness of the sculptures, creating a rhythm that sustains the fountains? vitality.

Swenson introduces mythological and symbolic elements through references to cupids, a goddess, and chariots. The goddess "driving a chariot through water" and the "tight white water" reins evoke an almost celestial control over nature. The intertwining of mythology and water further elevates the fountains beyond mere artistic constructions, transforming them into living embodiments of storytelling and cultural memory.

The repetition of "water" throughout the poem mimics the ceaseless flow and sound of the fountains. This repetition crescendos toward the poem?s conclusion, where Swenson examines the emotional resonance of the sculptures. The "marble faces" are described as "mad or patient or blind or astonished," their expressions fixed in stone yet endlessly animated by their interaction with water. Swenson’s line "always uttering water, water" captures the paradox of these silent figures constantly speaking through the language of movement and flow.

The poem’s structure, with its cascading lines and spaces, mirrors the movement of water. The indented lines and rhythmic breaks create the visual and auditory sensation of water splashing and cascading, while the irregular punctuation reflects the fountains? spontaneous, unpredictable energy.

In "Fountains of Aix," Swenson masterfully unites art, nature, and language to evoke the enduring vitality of the fountains. Her depiction of the interplay between stone and water becomes a meditation on the interplay of permanence and impermanence, art and life. By rendering the fountains as both static and alive, Swenson invites readers to consider the ways human creations are inseparably linked to the natural world, and how that connection shapes our experience of beauty and time.

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