Sara Teasdale 90 - അമാൾഫിയിലെ രാത്രിഗീതം Poem by Unnikrishnan Sivasankara Menon

Amalfi is a town in a dramatic natural setting below steep cliffs on Italy's southwest coast. Between the 9th and 11th centuries, it was the seat of a powerful maritime republic. The Arab-Norman Sant'Andrea cathedral at the heart of town, with its striped Byzantine facade, survives from this era. The Museo Arsenale Amalfi is a medieval shipyard-turned-exhibition space. The poem explores the speaker's futile search for the perfect gift for her love, encountering silence from both the heavens and the sea. The stark imagery and repetition of 'silence' convey the speaker's frustration and inability to express her deep emotions adequately. Compared to Teasdale's other works, this poem stands out for its brevity and starkness, eschewing her usual elaborate descriptions. It aligns with the era's modernist emphasis on simplicity and fragmentation. The poem reflects the post-World War I disillusionment, where traditional sources of meaning and inspiration—like religion and nature—no longer provide solace or guidance. The speaker's search for the inexpressible echoes the sense of loss and uncertainty that permeated the period.