Poetry Response #5

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


I really enjoyed “Evening Concert, Saint-Chapelle” by John Updike. The poem had nice very, smooth flow that helped convey its meaning. The imagery allowed me to feel as though I was actually in France listening to this classical concert, watching the intensity of the artists’ performance.

On line 10, Updike described the artists’ performance as a, “…holy glowing fantasy together”. Violins struck furiously together with immense passion; their hearts’ beat rapidly, keeping up with the pace of the music. Updike also chose really strong diction to portray the rapid movements, such as “strident strength” and “blazing blue” on lines 4 and 7. The stalwart diction parallels with the overall feelings and emotions this poem produced.

The ending stanza slowed down the pace of the poem and created an interesting affect on me, the audience. After the swift performance, “the music surged” and the people listening to the music became overcome with emotion. The violins also turned into a glimmer ebbed into their audience’s hearts. I loved the last four lines of the poem because I found it be quite clever. Updike related the passion of the artists with the violins becoming beating hearts. Emotion and passion comes from the heart, and I really liked how he tied the poem all together at the end.

In conclusion, “Evening Concert, Saint-Chapelle” by John Updike was a poem I had never come across before but greatly enjoyed. The emotions and feelings of the artists’ performance jumped off the page; the smooth flow made me feel as though I were in France watching this scene occur.

I am interested to see what else Updike has written...