The Condolence
The Condolence - meaning Summary
Masculinity Under Ironic Scrutiny
The speaker addresses the youthful, male songs as fellow sufferers and questions contemporary boasts of virility. He recalls youthful gatherings that mixed irony toward male stupidity with an easy regard for women. Outsiders now mock them as ostentatiously announcing their sex. The poem adopts a wry, self-aware tone and closes by suggesting they abandon public posturing and return to their private concerns and artistic aims.
Read Complete AnalysesO my fellow sufferers, songs of my youth, A lot of asses praise you because you are 'virile', We, you, I! We are 'Red Bloods'! Imagine it, my fellow sufferers Our maleness lifts us out of the ruck, Who'd have foreseen it? O my fellow sufferers, we went out under the trees, We were in especial bored with male stupidity. We went forth gathering delicate thoughts, Our ‘fantastikon’ delighted to serve us. We were not exasperated with women, for the female is ductile. And now you hear what is said to us: We are compared to that sort of person Who wanders about announcing his sex As if he had just discovered it. Let us leave this matter, my songs, and return to that which concerns us.
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