The Buried Life: Unearthing Images and Symbols

The Buried Life: Unearthing Images and Symbols

 

                In the poem “The Buried Life” by Matthew Arnold, the poet uses symbolism and imagery to show how and why fate has hidden part of man’s life deep in his heart; how intensely and fruitlessly mankind as a whole tries to continually search for it; and how love’s power provides a glimpse into the buried life of all humans.

               

In order to make clear the imagery of the first stanza, one must first read through to the end of it: “And let me read, there, love! Thy inmost soul.” lilts line 11. Obviously, the speaker is speaking to his lover, or someone he cares deeply about. Now, as the reader reads it over again, an image presents itself to their thirsty imaginations.

 “Light flows our war of mocking words, and yet, behold, with tears mine eyes are wet! I feel a nameless sadness o’er me roll.” (1-3) After this line, a reader can imagine two people, obviously lovers, having a great jest with one another, perhaps in a sitting room. Their love is evident in the comfort they possess in each other’s presence. As their revel goes on, however, one of them suddenly becomes very somber, even to the point of tearing up.

It goes on: “Yes, Yes, we know that we can jest. We know, we know that we can smile! But there’s something in this breast, to which thy light words bring no rest, and thy gay smiles no anodyne.” (4-8) Think about being so touched or amazed by something that it’s dreamt about for hours on end? It’s so deep and important  that one stares into space and sighs. It puts a man into his own world. Picture that state only with torturous sorrow instead of rainbows and good luck charms. But the lover in Arnold’s poem thinks he knows his solution! Listen!

“Give me thy hand, and hush awhile, and turn those limpid eyes on mine. And let me read there, love! Thy inmost soul.” (9-11) One can picture in their minds the passion and tension with which Arnold’s lover takes his partner’s hand, silences her, and gazes into her eyes, looking for something inside her through those eyes. Think of a romance film, for instance.

 

 

In the first stanza of The Buried Life, a huge symbolism for all mankind is introduced: the “Something in this breast” that Arnold names symbolizes the nameless sorrowful pangs that loom inside every human, even when they try to hide it away with humor or reason or something equally inadequate. Arnold’s lover clearly says this, “Yes, Yes we know that we can jest, we know, we know that we can smile! But there’s a something in this breast to which thy light words bring no rest. Yet another symbol in this same stanza can’t be left out.

“And let me read there, Love! Thy inmost soul.”(11) Arnold’s line, in context with his previous lament about the nameless sadness, symbolizes how love in all its infinite capacity and it’s deep meaning could indeed give an identity to the desire, and perhaps even conquer it and open up the heart.  This is the greater symbol of the stanza: love winning out over mysterious and selfish human nature. This is both the speaker’s and Arnold’s hope. Overall, the symbols and imagery in this stanza correlate with the speaker’s attempt to open up to his lover and show his readers how much love can truly do.

 

 

In the second stanza of his poem, the writer seems to have realized, perhaps, that love is not as strong as he supposed, and that men are not provoked, even by love, to open their hearts. But maybe, just maybe, he says, we can open our hearts because all are the same! He shows us this with more imagery.

For instance, he laments in lines 12-13 “Alas! Is even love too weak, to unlock the heart, and let it speak?” The imagery presented to us here is an image of someone’s heart, inside of which open expressions are kept as if caged. One can picture love as a broken hammer or some sort of inadequate tool that cannot open the heart.

Then, in the same stanza, he moves out to mass humanity, providing an image to his readers on the same theme, just broader. The imagery gives the impression of bugs or animals crawling about, unable to open their hearts. “I knew the mass of men concealed their thoughts for fear that if revealed, they would by other men be met with blank indifference, or blame reproved;” (16-19)

The final image in the second stanza is a very sinister, dark picture of mankind as it skulks about with large, dark hats; wearing long coats that cover them completely. They stroll by one another, slouched and afraid. Underneath, they are all strange looking, perhaps even extraterrestrial. In lines 20-22, Arnold says, “I knew they lived and moved, tricked in disguises, alien to the rest of men, and alien to themselves.”

 

 

The second stanza of the poem is also rife with symbols about unlocking the heart. The first comes from lines 12-13, “Alas, is even love to weak to unlock the heart and let it speak?” There is no literal lock on the hearts of men; rather it is the lock of fear, or the lock of basic human nature, or the lock of self-preservation. The word “lock” is indeed a symbol.

Second comes from lines 20-21, “I knew they lived and moved trick’d in disguises, alien to the rest.” Men are not oft walking around in costumes to hide themselves: this word is a symbol for the closing off of the heart and the lying that people do to cover their real emotions.

Third and finally, readers see a powerful symbol, and one that coheres with the overall theme of the poem; “The same heart beats in every human breast!” (23) This phrase is not saying that all men have the same physical hearts: it is saying that they all have the same emotions. One could perceive it as Arnold condemning all the disguising, alienating and locking up of human hearts. But look at it another way: he’s also grabbing at hope that men don’t have to be so alone! Overall, in the second stanza, Arnold is using symbols and imagery to exemplify man’s digging for his true nature, and how fruitless it sometimes is.

 

 

The next group of symbols and images is not in one stanza, but in two small ones. Matthew Arnold moves from general humanity back to his lover, though the themes expressed in the preceding larger stanza only serve to make his symbols and images all the more powerful here.

In lines 24-25 he asks, “But we, my love!�"doth a like spell benumb our hearts, our voices? Must we too be dumb?” When I read this line, my mind produces the image of a stereotypical witch, casting a spell on someone. Their heart, inside their chest, turns neon green, perhaps with envy or sickness.

Then in lines 26-29 the poet throws powerful symbols at his readers a rhetorical response, “Ah! Well for us, if even we, even for a moment, can get free our heart, and have our lips unchain’d; for that which seals them hath been deep-ordain’d.” Ordainment is a sacred process by which ordinary men become priests; something sanctified and powerful. Indeed, something inside us that is “deep ordained” is not easily changed or destroyed because it is sacred and powerful; So to do so is a monumental achievement! The symbol helps us grasp the significance of Arnold’s analogy, as well as the lover’s universal desire. Indeed, this stanza pulls his viewers back to the acute attempt by Arnold, to show how powerful love would be if it could reach “the buried life”.

 

 

In the next stanza, lines 30-43, Arnold pulls out again into the grander scheme of human nature, and with symbolism ties it now to fate and what it is in relation to mankind. He says,

“Fate, which foresaw how frivolous a baby man would be-

By what distractions he would be possess'd,
How he would pour himself in every strife,
And well-nigh change his own identity--That it might keep from his capricious play
His genuine self, and force him to obey
Even in his own despite his being's law,
Bade through the deep recesses of our breast
The unregarded river of our life (30-39)

 Arnold says that Fate, “Bade through the deep recesses of our breast the unregarded river of our life.” In symbolic terms, fate created and invited a “river” to flow through men’s hearts: a never ending stream of questions and struggles about who one truly is, and where one is going. These questions are hard to answer and puzzle many. They are buried.

Why would fate do this, torture a man by hiding his true nature and intent way down inside him? Interestingly, Arnold reveals why fate “buried man’s true life” before he tells us about the actual burying. He says in lines 35-37, “that it (fate) might keep from his capricious play his genuine self, and force him to obey…his being’s law.”The words “keep from” give reader an image of the creation of a gap between a person’s real character (buried) and a person’s playful, sauntering, shallow side that is evidently not buried at all.

Arnold never explicitly reveals “fate’s” purpose or intent in creating the “gap”. But it is implied. My own observation is that the implication comes from the reading of the lines as they present fate like a symbolic, disciplinary “judge” or “god” that has man’s best interests at heart. In lines 32-34 of the stanza, Arnold describes what fate saw in mankind: that it was frivolous, that it was possessed by distractions, “poured on strife”, and attempting to change its own natural identity. Those lines, in context, give us a mental thread of caring judge or disciplining father. Then after, Arnold goes on to speak of the actual burying. Almost as if fate were responding to what it saw. Thus, Fate’s nature is really made clear by what order the lines are presented.

If the readers see fate as a just judge or caring father, it would certainly not want our shallow natures to corrupt our true natures, right? Thus, out from the gap pops the reason for fate burying our “real lives”! A separation for the best!
                But let’s keep Arnold’s overall purpose in mind when looking at the symbol of fate as a judge: he’s trying to use symbolism to show how and why fate has buried man’s real nature.

 

 

The next stanza, number five, is the largest and by far the most intense, and is the best example of how mankind tries to reach his buried life. As before, Arnold uses imagery to achieve his purposes. “But often in the most crowded streets, but often in the din of strife, there comes an unspeakable desire after the knowledge of our buried life.” (45-48) These lines bring an image of a certain amount of chaos: think of Times Square in New York: how busy and chaotic it is every day. For most people, it’s probably hard to get a clear thought in while they’re in the square; after all, it’s so loud and noisy. Arnold is declaring that even in these busy places, the desire to discover the secret, hidden selves overcomes the intense bustle and noise.

Imagine the intensity of being in a fight with someone: all one can think about at that point is winning. However, Arnold is saying here that even during these times, our longing for our secret nature is even more powerful than that anger.. That’s how powerful the desire is: so powerful it overcomes our most intense moments of frustration and passion.

Next in the stanza is an image of thirst, fire and restlessness in the human heart. These images show how powerfully men want to “cross the gap.” Lines 49-50 go, “A thirst to spend our fire and restless force, in tracking out our true, original course.” Thirst. Every human knows the feeling of being thirsty: it is probably one of the most motivating desires that bodies possess. When one is thirsty, their whole body aches with it. They will not stop until they get something to drink. The desire to find the inner selves is as strong as thirst, or stronger.

Fire. Fire is hot: usually one can only get within a few feet of a roaring flame before the skin on his hands begins to burn. Picture someone’s hands burning with the desire to discover their inner, buried life. That’s how passionate people can become.

Picture someone with an addiction, or someone having something on the brain that absolutely needs to be done. It interrupts one’s whole day: normal activities, sleep and thought processes, family time and relaxation. The desire to find “buried lives” is like that: an obsession or an addiction that can’t be solved and is all consuming.

 

 

The symbolism in the fifth stanza shows the readers two elements: how worth it finding “the buried life” would be to a man, and how much toil men go through to do so. Lines 55-56 say “And many a man in his breast then delves. But deep enough, alas! None ever mines.” Mining, of course, is an endeavor that is extremely risky, yet could pay off in a lifetime of happiness and security. Mining is a symbol of man’s struggle to think about his inner life that could pay off tremendously.

Lines  57-58 tells, “And we have been on many thousand lines, and we have shown on each spirit and power.” Mankind, in order to find his “buried life”, has written thousands of lines of poetry. This poetry has been powerful, with aphorisms, symbols, images, ideals, onomatopoeia, wordplays, and so many others literary whims: yet still none of it gets very far in discerning the deepest level of buried lives.

 

 

The final two stanzas of Matthew Arnold’s poem are by far the most hopeful and least ambiguous. The poet, once again, uses imagery to take his readers back from all men and their struggles to the simple caress of love.

Arnold gives his readers an image of a man exhausted and overwhelmed by his struggles and trying to find himself. He says, “Only�"but this is rare�"when a beloved hand is laid in ours, when Jaded with the rush and glare of the interminable hours, our eyes can in another’s eyes read clear.” (77-81) The words “rush and glare” gives a mental picture of the thousands of cars that go by in a modern city. Most people get weary just thinking about it. Then… one look into the eyes of our lover, and clarity engulfs one again. Peace.

“When our world-deafen’d ear is by the tones of a loved voice caress’d�"a bolt is shot back somewhere in our breast and a lost pulse of feeling stirs again.” (82-85)This line gives readers the image of a deafened and overworked man who has lost all feelings in his attempt to find something. Then, he hears something-a voice speaking in kind tones. Then, his eyes brighten and he smiles. He is back, and alive again.

 

 

 Some of the symbols shown in these last two stanzas show the power of those we love to overcome a  voracious appetite for the universal buried lives, as well as perhaps help them see what they couldn’t on our own. Consider line 86 that declares, “(when we meet our lover) the eye sinks inward.”

When Arnold says, “The eye sinks inward”, a person’s eye isn’t sinking literally inward, but rather the person is seeing their buried life with no effort! The act of “Sinking”, if one thinks about it, is an act that isn’t voluntary: if one is in the water, they sink naturally. Thinking of this principle in the context of the poem is extraordinary! After all the effort that man has put in attempting to gaze inward by himself, all he has to do is simply look into his lover’s eyes or touch her, and voila! It happens automatically. The symbolism of the word “sinking” is powerful here.

Finally, Line 94 says “An air of coolness plays upon his face.” Readers know that there’s no literal breeze blowing onto a tormented man’s face: the breeze is symbolic. If one has ever been in a stuffy dance club on a warm summer’s night, where the beats are hopping and the body heat of lots of dancing people is cranking up the dial, and then one steps out for a moment into the night, where the breeze plays upon sweat-prickled skin, then one can greater understand the symbolic meaning of  what it feels like in a man’s soul when he’s been searching for his “buried life” for years, and then he finds it in his lovers touch or voice.

In “The Buried Life”, we see multiple examples of how the poet Matthew Arnold uses Symbolism and Imagery to show how intensely mankind searches for his buried inner self; where this inner self came from and why it was made; and how love can so easily do for us what we can’t do for ourselves: show us our buried lives.