In a poignant new collection celebrating his 80th year, poet Richard W Halperin turns to Shakespeare's most famous tragedy to probe the very nature of life and art. His poem, Now, Mother, What's the Matter?, takes its title from Hamlet's charged confrontation with Queen Gertrude, using it as a springboard to explore universal human disquiet.
A Lifelong Bridge Between Life and Art
Halperin, born in Chicago to an Irish mother and an American father of Russian descent, reveals that Hamlet has been a 'bridge between' for his entire life. The poem asserts that both existence and creativity are fundamentally 'for troubled hearts'. 'Hamlet's "Now, mother, what's the matter?" is life on earth,' Halperin writes. 'Something is always the matter, and not just for mothers.'
The work appears in the New Poems section of 'All the Tattered Stars: Selected and New Poems', published by Salmon Poetry in 2023 to mark the poet's octogenarian milestone. Halperin, who taught at Hunter College before a career in education administration with Unesco in Paris, where he now lives, brings a reflective depth to this literary interrogation.
Beyond Monsters and Angels: Art's Moral Landscape
Strikingly, Halperin's poem denies the presence of outright 'monsters' in Hamlet. This perspective sharpens the focus onto the complex moral and emotional turmoil of every character. The poem suggests that art provides a pathway away from the rigid, judgmental binaries often found in religious frameworks, though not an escape from moral quandaries themselves.
This theme is enriched by a timely reference to the Angelus bell, which commemorates the Annunciation. The poet then deftly reworks the biblical injunction to 'render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's', updating it for a modern, anxious age: 'everything is troubled there and, if I am lucky, Caesar is troubled.' He extends this sentiment to God and, crucially, to art itself.
The Elusive Pilgrimage of Understanding Art
In a disarmingly honest moment, the speaker confesses, 'I have no idea what art is.' He lists seemingly disparate literary touchstones—Edward Thomas's 'Adlestrop', Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady, and John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress—hinting at a common thread of spiritual or personal journey.
The poem concludes with a resonant, almost proverbial knowledge gained from this literary pilgrimage: 'that just before the gate to heaven is yet another hole to hell.' This stark image, reminiscent of Dante's illuminated inferno, underscores the magnitude and inherent darkness of the artistic and human quest. Halperin's work, influenced by the refreshing lightness of the New York School, ultimately consolidates a vision where drama, poetry, and fiction are inseparable from the 'troubled hearts' they depict and console.
