Trying something new with some poem analysis. Enjoy, and feel free to disagree with my interpretations – criticism always welcome.

“Maximus, to himself” by Charles Olsen (read by Charles Olsen):

I have had to learn the simplest things
last. Which made for difficulties.
Even at sea I was slow, to get the hand out, or to cross
a wet deck.
        The sea was not, finally, my trade.
But even my trade, at it, I stood estranged
from that which was most familiar. Was delayed,
and not content with the man’s argument
that such postponement
is now the nature of
obedience,

        that we are all late
        in a slow time,
        that we grow up many
        And the single
        is not easily
        known


It could be, though the sharpness (the achiote)
I note in others,
makes more sense
than my own distances. The agilities


        they show daily
        who do the world’s
        businesses
        And who do nature’s
        as I have no sense
        I have done either


I have made dialogues,
have discussed ancient texts,
have thrown what light I could, offered
what pleasures
doceat allows


        But the known?
This, I have had to be given,
a life, love, and from one man
the world.
        Tokens.
        But sitting here
        I look out as a wind
        and water man, testing
        And missing
        some proof


I know the quarters
of the weather, where it comes from,
where it goes. But the stem of me,
this I took from their welcome,
or their rejection, of me


        And my arrogance
        was neither diminished
        nor increased,
        by the communication


2


It is undone business
I speak of, this morning,
with the sea
stretching out
from my feet

---

I came across Maximus, to himself upon hearing the American writer Debbie Millman describe it as a “blueprint of [her] life”. And when a writer describes something as a blueprint of their life, I’m naturally curious.

This poem deeply struck me and so I’m going to try something I haven’t done before, which is a poem analysis. Here are three takeaways from this beautiful piece by Charles Olsen.

1. The things we never learn

I have had to learn the simplest things last. / Which made for difficulties.

This juxtaposition between learning the simplest things last hints at a struggle to understand the most fundamental of human qualities.

Sometimes I feel that the most basic questions like what it means to be a good person, or to love, or to be a friend are incredibly difficult to answer. It’s bizarre that convoluted questions like what the genetic locus for a rare disease is or the factors leading up to World War II can be discovered in a article or a book, but questions for fundamental questions on living seem more unanswerable every passing day.

2. The serenity of the present

I have made dialogues, / have discussed ancient texts, / have thrown what light I could, offered / what pleasures / doceat allows

It can be tempting to look towards history or past texts to find the antidote to difficult dilemmas. However, Olsen urges one to explore life through the act of simply living and mentorship:

But the known? / This, I have had to be given, / a life, love, and from one man / the world.

It’s unclear whether “one man” refers to God, himself or family, but the message remains: that engagement with the stories of the past is inferior to a life lived in the present.

3. The waters of life

It is undone business / I speak of, this morning, / with the sea / stretching out / from my feet

Finally, Olsen closes with an image that captures the root message of the poem and spurs a call to action.

Describing the sea as stretching out from my feet creates an overwhelming desire to ground oneself in a rapidly moving world. And though this may seem grim, perhaps we should rejoice at this thought. That while impossible trials and tribulations lay in front of us, we should seize the chance to live. To try, no matter how hopeless it seems, to live in the present, and to refine one’s relationship with the world.