“Orpheus Alone”: Continuing to Explore Themes of Loss and Longing in Mark Strand’s The Continuous Life
“Orpheus Alone” is the fifth poem in Mark Strand’s book of poetry The Continuous Life (1990). Not only was it published the same year as his designation as Poet Laureate of the United States, it was also the first book of poetry Strand had written in ten years, since his 1980 book Selected Poems. During the 1980s, Strand seemed dissatisfied with himself and his work, saying about this period that he “didn’t like what [he] was writing” and “didn’t believe in [his] autobiographical poems” (“Mark Strand: The Poetry Foundation”). As a result, he departed from poetry and spent his time writing short stories and prose, critiques of art, and even several children’s books. In this regard, The Continuous Life was not only a reflection of Strand’s time off, but perhaps more importantly a potential opportunity to reinvent himself as a poet and author.
The Continuous Life is made up of several types of literature: short poems, longer and less “rigid” works, and multi-part narrative pieces that blur the lines between poetry and prose. “Orpheus Alone” appears as the first of the longer, less structured poems in the volume, and comes after four poems that focus on themes of loss and longing. Its title is a reference to the story of the Greek mythological character Orpheus, who famously failed to recover his wife Eurydice from Hades and the Underworld. The poem itself is a hypothetical foray into Orpheus’ creative process and psyche after his failed expedition. In this way, Strand envisions an epilogue to the Orpheus myth. He tells of Orpheus writing three great poems and describes the content of these poems, as well as providing insight to the unique creative processes and emotions that drive the creation of each poem.
The poem, being the first longer work of The Continuous Life, gives Strand a chance to focus on the themes of longing, loss, and beauty that are present in the rest of the book. He uses “Orpheus Alone” for precisely this, doing so by describing in chronological order the fictitious poems that Orpheus writes. First, Orpheus’ original poem is described - a poem that focuses on the physical beauty of Eurydice and his anguish over losing her. Orpheus dwells on “Her forehead where golden light of evening spread…” and dreams that his words can bring back the images of his lover that he so desperately misses. Strand’s description of this poem is presented in a single, impressive sentence; it is more than 15 lines long, and his use of incredibly long sentences and fragmented, detailed images effectively wrap the reader in the whirlwind of painful emotion that is engulfing Orpheus.
Next, the creative process surrounding his second poem is detailed. Orpheus writes this poem spontaneously - he has wandered aimlessly around the countryside in an attempt to forget Eurydice and recreate his world without her, and the poem comes forth with “…such speech of newness that the world [is] swayed…” However, Strand downplays this second poem’s importance, commenting that this second great poem is one that “…no one recalls anymore.” Perhaps Strand does this because the poem is written from a place of denial. Orpheus is trying to cast aside his feelings of loss instead of embracing them, and by devaluing the second poem Strand is telling us that denial is not the way to cope with these feelings. Instead, he presents a method for dealing with loss by introducing the creation of Orpheus’ third poem, which is described as the greatest of the three.
Interestingly, the content of this third poem is not mentioned at all; instead, Strand describes only the emotions accompanying the formation of the work. He does so with an incredible vividness that has often been an element of his poetry writing, according to critic Jay Parini ("Mark Strand's Life and Career"). The third poem, Strand says, comes out as a physical extension of a world “Where death is reborn and sent into the world as a gift, / So the future, with no voice of its own, nor hope / Of ever becoming more than it will be, might mourn.” From language such as this, it is abundantly clear that Strand is choosing to use “Orpheus Alone” to further the same themes of loss and confusion that he alludes to in the first four poems of his book. In an interview, Strand describes the poem as “giving loss a contour or a form that makes the actual experience of loss bearable” ("Poetry Archive"). However, the poem does not give explicit answers for dealing with loss; instead, it tells us what not to do. We should not try to hide our dark feelings, Strand is saying. Death, loss, and the inevitable aftereffects accompanying these experiences are meant to be expressed! “Orpheus Alone” shows us the power that such expression can have, and by describing this power in Orpheus’ story, Strand encourages us as readers to further explore with him the themes of loss and longing – two of the overarching themes upon which The Continuous Life focuses.
Works Cited
"Mark Strand: The Poetry Foundation.” The Poetry Foundation: Find Poems and Poets.
Discover Poetry. Web. 5 Feb. 2011. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/
mark-strand>.
"Orpheus Alone by Mark Strand - Poetry Archive." Poetry Archive. Web. 11 Feb. 2011. <http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoem.do?poemId=9549>.
Parini, Jay. "Mark Strand's Life and Career." Modern American Poetry, University of Illinois. 1994. Web. 6 Feb. 2011. <http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/strand/life.htm>
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