The Doctor of Geneva
The Doctor of Geneva - meaning Summary
Confronting Sublime Natural Force
A titled "doctor of Geneva"—a lakeside, rational European—stands on a shore confronting the vast Pacific. He registers the ocean's power with classical comparisons and intellectual pride, yet the spectacle still agitates his mind, producing tumultuous, apocalyptic images of city steeples and ruin. The poem contrasts learned composure with an involuntary emotional response, closing on a small, human gesture: the doctor sighs and uses his handkerchief.
Read Complete AnalysesThe doctor of Geneva stamped the sand That lay impounding the Pacific swell, Patted his stove-pipe hat and tugged his shawl. Lacustrine man had never been assailed By such long-rolling opulent cataracts, Unless Racine or Bossuet held the like. He did not quail. A man who used to plumb The multifarious heavens felt no awe Before these visible, voluble delugings, Which yet found means to set his simmering mind Spinning and hissing with oracular Notations of the wild, the ruinous waste, Until the steeples of his city clanked and sprang In an unburgherly apocalypse. The doctor used his handkerchief and sighed.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.