Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In William Stanley Merwin's "Overtone," the poem itself functions much like the phenomenon it describes: a resonance that lingers, haunting the reader long after the initial encounter. The piece delves into the subtleties of music, specifically its power to evoke emotions and memories that aren't explicitly part of the composition. Yet, it moves beyond the domain of music to comment on the collective experience of war, loss, and memory.

The poem opens with an observation that during a musical performance, "Some listening were certain they could hear / through the notes summoned from the strings one more." Merwin paints an image of an audience caught in the magic of a performance, yet perceiving something that transcends the written score. This "resonance never part of the score" alludes to the way music, like all art, can resonate in unpredictable ways, tapping into personal or collective emotions and experiences that the composer may not have intended.

What is particularly intriguing is the idea that this resonance had been "waiting for / the first note." This notion imbues the piece with a sense of destiny or fate, as though the music and its accompanying resonance are inseparable, perhaps even predestined. The "resonance" becomes an almost spectral presence, "holding silent the iced minors of fear / the key of grief the mourning from before."

The poem then introduces the theme of war explicitly. It describes how the resonance includes "the names were read of those no longer there / that sound of what made no sound anymore." This brings us to the heart of the poem's exploration: the inexplicable way that a piece of music can invoke the pain and loss incurred through war. Here, the music becomes a kind of collective memory, a remembrance of those "no longer there."

The closing lines, "made up the chords that in a later year / some still believed that they could overhear / echoing music played during a war," tie back to the beginning of the poem. Merwin posits that the resonance from that specific performance persists "in a later year," affecting those who "still believed that they could overhear" it. This belief in the lingering power of the music speaks to the enduring impact of collective traumas like war. These events never fully disappear from the collective psyche; they continue to resonate in myriad, often unexpected, ways.

Merwin's "Overtone" is a masterful exploration of art's capacity to evoke the ineffable. It not only portrays the transcendental power of music but also offers a poignant reflection on how communal experiences-specifically the traumas of war-can echo through time, lingering as a haunting overtone that permeates the collective soul.

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