By DONALD DeMARCO
The distinguished poet and literary critic, John Crowe Ransom, has stated that “the poet perpetuates in his poem an order of existence which in actual life is constantly crumbling beneath his touch.”
My Christmas writing paper displays a smiling snowman surrounded by an extensive snowscape dotted with numerous evergreen trees. The contrast between the snowman and the trees is striking and brings to mind the theological notion that our mortality is linked to our immortality through hope.
Even the prosaic can remind us of the association between our fragile nature and our eternal destiny. When children playfully build a snowman, they are lost in the moment, absorbed by the fun of it all. The poet, however, sees an order of existence that has eternal significance. His words give witness to that higher order so that we are less likely to be contained by the immanent.
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Despite his smile and cheerful disposition,
Our snow man’s life is but an intermission
Between two periods of warmer weather —
This cold snap could not last forever.
Ephemeral creation of winter’s rage,
He celebrates what cannot age:
The surrounding trees that dot the scene
Which, like our hope, stay evergreen.
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