Sample Student Work: Poem Analysis

A Perfect Bliss Captured in a Photo: An analysis of the poem "Lake Como"

The whimsical and light imagery used to depict Lake Como is contrasted to the bleak
and dark imagery depicting the city to convey that the world in the photograph is
constantly blissful and idyllic. Lake Como is introduced in the second section of the
poem as a scene with a "clear sky " and " a sailboat rid[ing] the wind." This world is
immediately presented as carefree. A "clear sky" conjures the idea of being worry-free
without trouble or disruption. Also "sky" is often used as a symbol for ultimate
freedom due its vastness, and the absence of earthbound limitations. The sailboat
"rides the wind", which conveys a strong sense of boundless freedom. The verb "ride"
implies that the sailboat needs not exert any effort to be propelled forward, but is
instead carried by the wind. "Wind" has a very spontaneous and unpredictable
nature, with the ability to carry this boat on a completely uncharted path. The use of a
"clear sky" in conjunction with a "sailboat" also creates the sense of safety. The fate
of any nautical voyage is predominantly determined by the weather, and the "clear
sky" present during this sailboat's voyage shows the lack of any on-coming storm,
allowing the boat to remain unhindered by misfortune. The movement of this sailboat
is juxtaposed against the movement of the bus in the clerk's reality. In the first
section of the poem, which can be considered a description of daily life, the card-
sharp is described as "waiting for the No. 6 bus to discharge." The act of waiting for a
bus intimates predictability and schedule, the complete opposite of the capricious
nature of wind carrying a sailboat. Buses run on restricted schedules, creating a
sense of confined, as opposed to free, movement. This contrast between boat and
bus emphasizes the blissful ease of Lake Como. Also the imagery used to describe
the people of Lake Como creates a sense of constant contentment. The people are
described as "men and women in white." The color white symbolizes purity, which
implies that these people are pure and untouched, and "oblivious to strife." But in
the shadows of the city are the people who have experienced loss and are in
someway incomplete. There is the "one-armed card sharp, " the "drunken mechanic"
and the "clerk on crutches." Whether with a lost arm, in a drunken state, or on
crutches, all of the figures are incapacitated. These people in the reality have been
maimed in life due to hardships, unlike the whole and untouched "men and women
in white." Finally, the contrasting imagery of light and dark in the description of Lake
Como and of the city creates an overall blissful association with the lake. Within the
photograph, there are "glowing mountains" and the people are "just drinking in the
light" showing that this world has been suffused with radiance. Light has a positive
connotation, used to illustrate hope and optimism, and the people of Lake Como are
in the constant presence of its glow. In contrast to the lake, the city has "the
searchlight of the February moon," and the "eastern star" as singular and miniscule
light sources. The illustration of light coming from these two very limited sources
Sample Student Work: Poem Analysis

implies that the rest of this environment is shrouded in darkness. Shadow and
darkness carry a negative connotation, lending the city a somber and downtrodden
feel. All of the contrasting examples of imagery between Lake Como and the city
illustrate the lake as a place of never-ending optimism and ease, allowing it to be
considered a constant bliss.

The use of contrasting diction — verbs suggesting buoyancy versus verbs suggesting
burden — illustrates the bliss of Lake Como as surreal and discontinuous with reality,
and thus impractical and unachievable. Throughout the second section of the poem,
the idea of floating is described. The use of a "sailboat" within the scene of Lake
Como is quite logical and is a literal example of buoyancy, creating a sense of
limitless and unrestricted movement. But later in the poem, verbs suggesting floating
are used to describe the actions of the people in the photo, and a sense of realism
and logic is abandoned. The people are described as "men and women in white/ who
seem to live upon the water." The suggestion of "liv[ing] upon the water" causes the
people of this blissful world to seem surreal and their actions non-human. The ability
to remain floating above the surface of the water would require that humans
transcend their physical limitations and defy gravity. But humans carry weight and
substance, and the idea that humans could act as weightless entities is illogical.
Another line that describes the movement of these people in a surreal fashion is that
they are "gliding among themselves oblivious to strife/ and all else that wears a body
down." The verb "gliding" is used to describe seamless, flowing, and unburdened
movement; to "glide" is to move without effort or resistance. This part of the poem
suggests that people are not earth-bound, but instead weightless and unburdened,
with the ability to transcend gravity. The sheer impracticality and unrealistic nature of
their actions is emphasized when compared to the realistic and grounded movement
of characters in the clerk's reality. In the city, a "one-armed card sharp squats" while
"waiting for the No. 6 bus to discharge." When someone is burdened or tired, they
"squat" in order to relieve pressure and attempt to escape from burden temporarily.
This verb illustrates this person with a realistic sense of weight and substance by
showing attempts to relieve or re-adjust the weight. The clerk was later described as
"stiffly ascending the five flights" on the way to his apartment. The adverb "stiffly" also
reveals laborious effort in the action. As opposed to seamlessly and smoothly
"gliding," the clerk "stiffly ascends" the stairs due to the effort needed to move
upwards in the defiance of ever-present gravity. Christopher also uses the verb
"sitting down" to depict the effort and fatigue of the city-dwellers. If the clerk had the
ability to "glide" as the people of Lake Como apparently do, there would be no need
to "[sit] down." The ethereal beings of Lake Como seemingly "glide" tirelessly through
their world, without limitations or exhaustion. But in actuality, people experience
limitation and exhaustion, and they "squat" and move "stiffly" in reaction to gravity
and other realistic forces. This illustration of the city-dwellers grounded movement
contrasts sharply with the floating actions of the people on Lake Como, causing the
lake to seem dreamlike and therefore unreachable in real life. This, in turn, removes
the image of perfect bliss from realistic possibility.

Finally, the depiction of Lake Como as a freeze-frame, and the city with passing time,
further illustrates the infeasible nature of perfect bliss. First of all, the world of Lake
Sample Student Work: Poem Analysis

Como is placed within the photograph of the of clerk's wife, "her color photograph
propped up in a small frame." Although the Lake may be described as an alternate
and on-going world, this place and the people within it are just a moment caught in
time. This world is constantly blissful, but that is due to the nature of a photograph-
constant and unchanging. In the photograph, the clerk's "late wife" is still able to
"gaze" down at her husband. This action is only attainable because once the photo
was taken, this woman was locked into an action that will forever remain the same.
Another aspect that illustrates the lack of time in this bliss is the absence of
sequential events. The photo illustrates the actions occurring simultaneously in one
moment, but with no causality or progression of time. While "the sailboat rides the
wind," there are "passengers on the polished deck," who "[glide] among themselves,"
with "some sipping from crystal goblets" and "others just drinking in the light." In this
scene, there is no timeline, and in fact, these people are caught participating in one
action and do not progress to any participate in any other. But in the clerk's daily
routine, there is a definitive timeline. Actions tend to follow one another, and multiple
actions occur for a single character, all signaling passing time. The card-sharp begins
by "waiting" for the bus that would eventually "discharge ... the drunken mechanic"
and the drunken mechanic, once discharged from the bus, "lose[s] three dollars at
blackjack." The "clerk on crutches" that was discharged "watch[es] the mechanic
loose three dollars" and "then stiffly ascends" the stairs, arrives at his apartment
"hanging his coat on a hook," and sits down to the soup bowl that "this morning he
had placed" at the table. This all supports the passing of time, allowing a sequence to
be formed by certain events. This passing of time causes new events to occur,
opening characters to the possibility of hardship. If the clerks' reality exhibited no
passing of time like the photo, the mechanic might have remained in a frozen
moment on the bus, and he would not have "lost three dollars at blackjack." In the
bigger picture, if time had not passed for the clerk, perhaps he would have been
caught in a moment with his wife, rendering it impossible for her to become "his late
wife." But in reality, time passes. A moment cannot be just suspended in time, like
the moment in the photograph of Lake Como. The reason that the people of Lake
Como are apparently living in a constant bliss is because just a singular blissful
moment of their life has been captured. Since time cannot pass in this world,
hardship cannot occur. The capture of this moment doesn't ensure the preservation
of this state in real life. Just because Lake Como is depicted as a perfect bliss in the
photograph does not mean that this would be the state one would find the lake in
upon return. A perfect bliss, such as that at Lake Como, only exists in frozen time, an
impossibility in the real world.

In conclusion, the constant and pure bliss of Lake Como is contingent upon
weightless and ethereal people in a timeless dimension, which is clearly
unachievable in reality. In the real world, people do hold weight and burden and a
moment in time cannot be frozen. This causes the reader to reflect on the passing
nature of their bliss, and encourages him or her to reflect on the meaning of true
happiness in a world where sadness and hardships occur. The bliss, as described by
"Lake Como", may be attainable for moments throughout life, but it will never be
constant, and it must exist in spite of people's burdens, not in an idealized world.