Evening Concert, Saint Chapelle

Evening Concert, Saint-Chapelle

The celebrated windows flamed with light
directly pouring north across the Seine;
we rustled into place. Then violins
vaunting Vivaldi’s strident strength, then Brahms,
seemed to suck with their passionate sweetness,
bit by bit, the vigor from the red,
the blazing blue, so that the listening eye
saw suddenly the thick black lines, in shapes
of shield and cross and strut and brace, that held
the holy glowing fantasy together.
The music surged; the glow became a milk,
a whisper to the eye, a glimmer ebbed
until our beating hearts, our violins
were cased in thin but solid sheets of lead.

—John Updike

This poem, to me, speaks about the power that music has. I personally have an intense emotional response to music, and the poem illustrates that for me. It tends to bring up not only very vivid emotions but also images. I believe the poem speaks to this emotional response that music brings, and the images. The line " so that the listening eye
saw suddenly the thick black lines, in shapes
of shield and cross and strut and brace, that held
the holy glowing fantasy together."

The idea of "the listening eye" is what jumps out at me the most, because it is true that one listens to music with much more than just the ear. Music creates a picture in the brain that the eye can see- the picture can even be put onto paper. Sometimes in middle or elementary school children will be asked to draw what the music makes them feel- to draw the image that the music captures. The poem was most likely written after a particular powerful concert, and Updike felt moved to not only see an image but also write a poem about it. The poem in a way creates the same musicality as music itself: the sentences ebb and flow, strong words and statements are sprinkled through-out. The poem embodies the mind of a music enthusiast.