There in Conjunction

CONJUNCTION by Robert Graves [poet, WWI soldier]

What happens afterwards, none need enquire:

They are poised there in conjunction, beyond time,

At an oak-tree top level with Paradise:

Its leafy tester unshaken where they stand

Palm to palm, mouth to mouth, beyond desire,

Perpetuating lark song, perfume, colour,

And the tremulous gasp of watchful winds,

Past all unbelief, we know them held

By peace and light and irrefragable love -

Twin paragons, our final selves, resistant

To the dull pull of earth dappled with shade:

Myself the forester, never known to abandon

His vigilant coursing of the greenwood's floor,

And you, dryad of dryads, never before

Yielding her whole heart to the enemy, man.

    I was introduced to this poem by my lovely lead. I am not usually one for loose contemporary poetry, but when my love says something is good, I cannot help but to open my eyes and begin to admire. Conjunction starts with us knowing the action before we know the parties involved. Framed in this way, we feel the universal and natural familiarity of intimacy. This closeness with the subject matter is further elevated by the avoidance of introducing the forester and the dryad until the end of the piece. Likewise, the first and second point of view within the poem, engages us within in the piece as the giver of the poem (the forester) or the receiver of the poem (the dryad) depending on whether we are reading the poem or listening to it.

    

    This poem is obviously referring to sex. But where modern themes of sex devolve into lust and base desire, Conjunction reminds us of the greater meaning behind the physical act. Modernity has lost a sense of the metaphysical and its values. It is easy to be lost in physical desire and forget the gravity of sexual intimacy. At its core, sex should be a vulnerable act of self-sacrifice, where the enjoyment of one another, and the desire to please the other party, creates a unity that makes individuals strive to be greater visions of themselves. The piece, while definitively sensual, is most definitely devoid of lewdness in order to elevate the themes of intimacy and the vulnerability of the act. To give oneself freely to another is something to be savored. The piece is written in past tense with emphasis on past participles in order to give the poem a sense of remembrance, as if the poem was unintentionally inspired by the forester, when remembering his beloved dryad.

    The themes of unity are heavily present in the narrative. Where the forester and the dryad are no longer enemies nor opposites, but equals- twin paragons- who through their unity overcome their differences and exemplify more. In their unity the forester and dryad perpetuate the senses of sight (colour), sound (lark song) and smell (perfume) to each other and thus to the world. The giving of these senses beyond themselves serves to not only alluded to the sensual intimacy of the subject matter, but also to the giving and yielding nature of the act. 

    

    The second stanza moves away from the act of intimacy and towards the metaphysical meaning behind the action. There is a subtle dichotomy presented within the second stanza. Where the forester and the dryad, through their joint intimacy become avatars of light, peace and love. Standing together as the greatest form of themselves, they face the draw of death, softened to "the dull pull of a shaded earth". The beginning of this stanza serves to represent the forester and dryad as the archetypes to which man and women are natural drawn. In their union, the forester and dryad, become more than themselves, for from their unity, their teleological purpose, the creation of new life, resonates. For all of human history man and women have been defined by their purpose. Where the man is to order the environment and the women is meant to order the man, From their unity a man and a women produce offspring from which their being can live through. It is through this act of creating new life, that averts death, for though the physical body dies, the purpose and thus the archetype of man and women still live on.

    This sense of averting death through life is further supported by the changing of the forester's perspective. He defines himself through his role as the forester, a hunter and therefor a killer of the beings that the forest provides. And yet, this view of one who brings death is subverted by his union of the dryad, who through her beauty, reorients the forester to herself, an avatar of the forest thus of life. Where he was meant to course through the environment and take from the forest at will, the dryad who yielded herself to him, causes him to do the unthinkable, abandon his previous vision of self in the pursuit of unity with her. This unity is justified and reward not simply through the act of intimacy, but through the finding of greater purpose, where the forester himself admits to embodying his archetype as a paragon: a man, whose purpose is to love a woman.