기억과 자연

Memory and Nature: W. S. Merwin’s The Shadow of Sirius

This article examines how memory and nature affect W. S. Merwin’s poetry in his The Shadow of Sirius (2009). The book reveals a poet who has faced time and death unyielding with eyes wide open. The poet appeals even better when he composes a calm confrontation with those heartaching subject-matters. It is characteristic of Merwin in the latest stage of his poetic career that he prefers to sustain such a peaceful posture among pains and anxieties from inevitable results of life rather than to fall into despondency or to rely on transcendence. The attitude seems to be made possible by affirming what life can offer as it is. Memory is the primary force which enables the poet to accept life affirmatively. The present, where almost everything has passed away, can be redeemed only when filled with those never-vanishing moments of the past. As for Merwin, memory is not only about enduring painful losses, but also about managing to lead a life unflinching through them. Merwin regains his strength from nature as well as from memory. Nature is sometimes depicted in his poetry as something original or transcendental which, being always there, lives over an individual's life. However, he watches nature just as beautiful as it really is in itself, among unavoidable losses, when it comes to him in its seasonal changes.