Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Robert Penn Warren's "Crime" is a dark and intricate exploration of guilt, memory, and the weight of past actions. The poem centers around a figure who has committed a crime—what kind of crime remains ambiguous—and is haunted by the buried memory of it. The imagery and narrative structure delve into the psyche of a person who is both tormented by what he has done and incapable of fully understanding or recalling it, reflecting a deep internal conflict. Through vivid metaphors and surreal scenes, Warren engages with themes of remorse, the unconscious mind, and the elusive nature of peace.

The poem begins with a stark command: "Envy the mad killer who lies in the ditch and grieves." Right away, Warren presents a figure who has committed an act of violence and now lies alone, overwhelmed by sorrow. The command to "envy" this man is startling because, at first glance, there seems to be little to envy. He is isolated, haunted by the sound of horns and tires from the highway, and trapped in a mental state where he "tries to remember, and tries," but fails to recall what he buried "under the leaves." The repetition of his attempts to remember introduces a central motif: the tension between memory and forgetfulness. The killer’s inability to recall what he has buried—whether it is a physical body or the memory of his crime—serves as a metaphor for suppressed guilt and trauma.

Warren continues to weave a dreamlike narrative with the introduction of pirates who hide treasure near a lagoon, only to lose the map and forget where the treasure is hidden. The image of pirates, with their skull markers and roaring in pubs, contrasts with the killer's grim reality but parallels his plight. Both the pirates and the killer are linked by the act of burying something important, only to lose track of it. However, while the pirates eventually "remember what they hid," the killer remains trapped in his forgetfulness. This comparison hints at the killer’s deeper problem: it is not merely the act of remembering that eludes him, but the nature of what he has lost or buried.

As the poem progresses, Warren deepens the sense of confusion and disorientation surrounding the killer's memory. He asks, "But what was it?" The killer struggles to grasp the significance of what he has done. Was it the "old woman mumbling her gums like incertitude?" Was it the "proud stranger who asked the match by the park wood" or the child "who crossed the park every day with the lunch-basket?" These fleeting, fragmented images of possible victims reflect the killer's fractured memory. The list of figures—the old woman, the stranger, the child—suggests that the killer’s crime has blurred into a fog of possibilities, none of which he can clearly identify.

Warren uses the metaphor of "the delicious / And smooth convolution of terror, like whipped cream" to evoke the complex and elusive nature of the killer's emotions. The killer cannot "formulate" this terror, even though it is central to his experience. The reference to "the mouth, rounded and white for the lyric scream" further underscores the disconnect between the killer and his memory of the crime. He never heard the scream, and yet it haunts him, an echo of a moment he can no longer access. The scream, like the buried object, remains out of reach, though he continues to try to piece it together.

The notion of treasure reemerges as the killer’s crime becomes his "treasure," something he has carried with him, often "hugged under his coat, among sharp elbows and rows / Of eyes hieratic like foetuses in jars." This vivid and unsettling image of preserved, unseeing eyes in jars suggests that the killer is surrounded by reminders of his crime, yet these reminders are sterile, disconnected from life. His crime, or "treasure," is something he has "nursed unwitting," much like a child unaware of the weight of the bauble they hold. The killer’s relationship to his crime is paradoxical: it is both precious and monstrous, something he carries unknowingly but cannot let go of.

The poem shifts its focus to the killer’s desire for peace, stating that "Happiness: what the heart wants." Yet, for the killer, peace is elusive, as it is "snatched at the fleeting hem, though in error." This suggests that the killer has sought redemption or resolution but has been unsuccessful in finding it. The use of "error" implies that whatever peace he pursued was fundamentally flawed or misguided. He remains trapped in a cycle of guilt and repression, never able to achieve the peace he desires.

Warren’s use of surreal, almost hallucinatory imagery continues in the second half of the poem. The killer’s mental state is likened to a world where "no walls confer in the silent house, / Nor the eyes of pictures protrude, like a snail’s, each on its prong." This disquieting image of the house and the eyes suggests a psychological landscape where the killer’s surroundings no longer make sense, where reality itself is distorted. Despite this confusion, the poem insists that the reader "envy him, for what he buried is buried." While the killer may be tormented by his inability to remember, there is a kind of finality in the act of burying. Whatever he buried "by the culvert there" is hidden away, and he is freed from the burden of consciously carrying it with him.

Yet the killer’s memory persists, like "a pipe in the cellar-dark," dripping slowly but steadily, reminding him of what he cannot escape. The poem concludes with an image of the "cold heart" that "heaves like a toad, and lifts its brow / With that bright jewel you have no use for now." This final image of the heart, likened to a toad and lifting a "bright jewel," symbolizes the killer's guilt or crime—something once valuable but now useless to him. The "jewel" represents the memory of his crime, a burden he can neither fully recall nor discard.

In "Crime," Robert Penn Warren delves into the complexity of guilt, memory, and the psychological burden of a crime that cannot be fully understood or resolved. The poem’s surreal, fragmented imagery mirrors the disjointed mental state of the killer, who is trapped in a cycle of forgetting and remembering, unable to reconcile himself with his actions. Through its exploration of memory and suppression, "Crime" suggests that even when a crime is buried, its effects linger, shaping the inner landscape of the one who committed it.

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