Harpo Marx
Harpo Marx - meaning Summary
Silent Comic, Lasting Presence
Lowell addresses Harpo Marx as a silent artist whose pantomime and harp-playing create a form of cinematic immortality. He recalls seeing Harpo near the end of his life in Central Park, noting the spectacle around him and his own wish to kneel. The poem contrasts motion-picture stillness with living presence, unites comedy and melancholy, and registers admiration as personal aging converges with Harpo's enigmatic, universally recognizable performance.
Read Complete AnalysesHarpo Marx, your hands white-feathered the harp— the only words you ever spoke were sound. The movie's not always the sick man of the arts, yours touched the stars; Harpo, your motion picture is still life unchanging, not nature dead. I saw you first two years before you died, a black-and-white fall, near Fifth in Central Park; old blond hair too blonder, old eyes too young. Movie trucks and five police trucks wheel to wheel like covered wagons. The crowd as much or little. I wish I had knelt… I age to your wincing smile, like Dante's movie, the great glistening wheel of life— the genius happy…a generic actor.
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