Ariel

Song Meaning

The poem opens with a stark image of "stasis in darkness," a feeling of being trapped and unmoving. This is immediately contrasted with a "substanceless blue / Pour of tor and distances," suggesting a yearning for escape or a dissolution into something vast and intangible. The initial stillness gives way to a sense of intense, almost violent motion, as the speaker describes a "pivot of heels and knees" and a "furrow / Splits and passes." This physical transformation feels primal and powerful, like a birth or a breaking free. The central tension seems to lie in the speaker's struggle to fully embody a new, liberated state. There's a desperate pursuit of something elusive, like "the brown arc / Of the neck I cannot catch," and a visceral engagement with dark, primal imagery: "Nigger-eye / Berries cast dark / Hooks," and "Black sweet blood mouthfuls." These elements suggest a complex relationship with desire and perhaps a dangerous, intoxicating freedom. The phrase "Something else / Hauls me through" indicates a force beyond the speaker's direct control, propelling them forward. The poem's power is amplified by its abrupt shifts in imagery and perspective. The transition from the visceral "black sweet blood mouthfuls" to the almost mythical "White / Godiva" is jarring, highlighting a duality or a shedding of old selves. The repetition of "dead hands, / dead stringencies" emphasizes the rejection of past constraints. The ultimate transformation into "the arrow" that flies "suicidal" into "the red / Eye, the cauldron of morning" is a breathtaking, terrifying image of complete surrender to a destructive, yet perhaps purifying, force.