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Air for Mercury | Introduction

Brenda Hillman’s poem “Air for Mercury” was published in her 2001 collection Cascadia, which most critics acknowledge is Hillman’s most ambitious work, if not her most accessible work. The volume was inspired by Hillman’s love for her adopted state of California. Cascadia refers to the prehistoric landmass that predates California and America’s West Coast—a landmass that was submerged under the ocean more than 100 million years ago. In Cascadia, Hillman uses this ancient geological occurrence as a springboard to map the various geological and cultural characteristics of modern-day California. But, as Hillman herself notes in an online interview with Poets & Writers magazine, “The main geography of the book is the idea of mind-as-earth.” The book, then, becomes an exploration of the shifting tectonic plates of the human mind, what she refers to as “the ceaseless slow and potentially violent nature of change . . . the upheaval of ideas or feelings.” This abstract notion permeates the book and is present in “Air for Mercury,” which some students may find confusing at first. In the poem, Hillman seems to incorporate several different image systems and concepts in one shifting mass that defies cohesiveness. But by viewing the poem in terms of the human “change” that Hillman notes, the poem begins to make sense, and its dominant themes, the loss of religious faith and comprehension as modern society moves toward secularization, begin to shine through. A copy of the poem can be found in Cascadia, published by Wesleyan University Press in 2001.

Air for Mercury Summary

Stanza 1
The first noticeable aspect of Hillman’s “Air for Mercury” is the title, which can be interpreted in two different ways. The title could be noting an alchemical change, where air is transformed into the metal mercury. Or, it could denote the Roman god, Mercury. At first, it’s not clear if either of these interpretations is correct. The poem’s first section starts out with the following two-line stanza: “After the double party / for the poorly loved.” At this point, it is too early to guess what this “double party” might signify, or who the “poorly loved” might be. The next few lines give some more setting details: “when the gleam in the hound’s eye / fell like glass rain on the south / lawn of the countergarden.” As with the terms “double party” and “poorly loved,” the “hound” is probably symbolic. A symbol is a physical object, action, or gesture that also represents an abstract concept, without losing its original identity. Symbols appear in literature in one of two ways. They can be local symbols, meaning that their symbolism is only relevant within a specific literary work. They can also be universal symbols, meaning that their symbolism is based on traditional associations that are widely recognized, regardless of context. Again, it is unclear at this point who or what the hound is meant to symbolize, and whether or not this symbol is local or universal.

The image of the “countergarden,” however, draws attention to itself. In literature, poets and authors often use gardens to symbolize the biblical Garden of Eden. Looked at in this way then, the “countergarden” could symbolize the human world after the biblical fall from grace when Adam and Eve were forced to leave Eden. Yet, again, this is only one interpretation, and this interpretation does not necessarily coincide with the next part of the poem: “when / the image of false flags sank.” What are these false flags, and whose flags are they? In any case, Hillman notes that the image of these flags “sank / in the mirrored plaques,” and that “when the mirrored plaques / had been passed in, they took / your days and gave them back.” At this point, one can start to make some assumptions about the poem, the biggest of which is the fact that Hillman is trying to convey a sense of time passing, and of several human events having occurred. The “false flags” seem to refer to one of the human wars, most likely a modern war involving the United States, since the dominant topic that pervades Hillman’s Cascadia is the history of California. In this case, the mirrored plaques might be referencing a type of after-war ceremony, where the victors give each other plaques and other awards of distinction. Yet, the war could also be symbolic and meant to convey the sense of an ideological war.

With the phrase “took / your days,” Hillman identifies a subject for the poem. But who is the “your” referring to? Returning to the title of the poem, the “your” could be referring to the god Mercury, and Roman gods in general, since the days of the week were originally named after Roman gods, including Mercury (Wednesday was originally known as Mercury’s day). This interpretation would introduce a strange time paradox because the renaming of the Roman days into their current Anglo- Saxon incarnations took place long before the founding of California and even before the founding of the United States. What becomes clear at this point is that Hillman is not creating a unified image system. If one tries to literally analyze the majority of her words, as one usually does in poetry, it leads to a number of conflicting interpretations. Instead, Hillman is a poet of sense and feel, as the next lines indicate: “before you unsnapped first / the crenellated shoulder wings / then the fumbling then the little / ankle wings.” Again, it is tempting to think that Hillman is talking about the god Mercury, who is known for his wings. Yet, Mercury is usually depicted as having either ankle wings or a winged hat, not shoulder wings, which are more a hallmark of Christian angels. So with these lines, it becomes clear that Hillman is merging... » Complete Air for Mercury Summary