Summary
The speaker tries to provide emotional solace to his wife. He pushes aside the curtain so they can see the trees and night sky outside. The speaker then describes their love as a slightly graying light and implies a moment of sexual intimacy between the two of them. They fall asleep but the man perceives a strange figure entering the room. The figure hovers over them and the speaker's wife grows restless.
Analysis
"The World" uses a mysterious and unnerving scenario to demonstrate tension in a romantic relationship between a man and a woman. The speaker is a man doing his best to provide comfort to his wife as she suffers through emotional difficulties. Her internal struggles become more clearly defined as the poem progresses, but Creeley characterizes it through loosely supernatural images. With the use of an unusual scene, Creeley is able to cut to the emotional core of what is troubling this couple.
In the opening lines of the poem, the speaker is characterized as a loving and caring partner. He seeks to soothe and reassure his wife, living up to her perceived expectations of him: "I wanted so ably / to reassure you, I wanted / the man you took to be me." The speaker clearly sees a gap between his ability to "reassure" and the "man" she originally "took to be" him. He feels that there is some failing on his part to give her the emotional care she needs. This early moment also shows the way in which the speaker and poem view love as based in acts of care. The speaker isn't professing his love in words; he is trying to live up to the role that has been ascribed to him. In the second stanza, the speaker carries out the small action of pushing aside the curtains ("to comfort you, and got / up, and went to the window, / pushed back, as you asked me to,"). This moment continues the theme of care as the speaker is complying with his wife's wishes and giving her access to a view of the night occurring outside their window. Even if he is unable to solve bigger emotional problems, he can do the concrete thing of moving the curtains. Once again, it is a gesture of concern and consideration.
In the third stanza, the speaker depicts the scene unfolding outside their home: "the curtain, to see / the outline of the trees / in the night outside." These lines develop the scenery and set the timing of the poem. It also hints at a world outside of their shared home, a subtle reminder to the speaker's wife that life continues on even in the midst of her suffering. The third line is also the first instance in which Creeley end-stops a line, clearly marking this as the end of this particular thought from the speaker. The stanza that follows ("The light, love, / the light we felt then, / greyly, was it, that") offers a slight contrast, imagining light in the midst of the darkness of night. The speaker categorizes the love he shares with his wife with the image of "light." By using the word "greyly," he appears to be saying that their love is still potent but clouded by some unseen force or feeling. This moment also foreshadows the appearance of the "grey" figure later in the poem. As the speaker shows, the light of their love remains strong, yet it is experiencing some unnamed difficulties.
This trouble comes into clearer focus in the middle stanzas of the poem. The speaker goes on to suggest a scene of physical intimacy ("came in, on us, not / merely my hands or yours, / or a wetness so comfortable,") while still suggesting there is some lingering unease present in their home. The phrases "my hands or yours" and "wetness so comfortable" specifically give the impression that the couple has had sex This action, and the warmth with which it is described, further solidifies the impression of the couple as passionate and loving. However, the "grey" light that "came in on" the couple gives the clear feeling that something troubling is approaching. This feeling is realized in the sixth stanza: "but in the dark then / as you slept, the grey / figure came so close." This scene appears like something out of a horror movie. This "grey" figure silently drifts into the room and draws near to the couple as the wife sleeps and the husband lies still. The seventh stanza, occurring at the poem's halfway point, is even more chilling. It describes the figure getting closer ("and leaned over, / between us, as you / slept, restless, and") as they, the couple, remain unmoving. Notably, the figure appears "between" them as it leans above them and the speaker's wife grows "restless." The implication here, even before the reader learns who the figure is, is that this being is disturbing the wife, causing her strife even as she sleeps. At this point in the poem, the outline of what has been troubling the couple comes to the fore. While it is still unclear who the figure is, the reader gets the distinct sense that it is driving the speaker's wife's troubles and creating distance in their relationship.
Stylistically, the poem has many of Creeley's typical trademarks. The lines are frequently enjambed, which results in an interconnectedness of images and impressions. This structure gives Creeley the ability to connect individual moments of perception (the window, the light, the figure) fairly seamlessly in the text. The poem is made up of relatively brief tercets (with the exception of the ending, which is a single quatrain) and its lines are clipped, rarely running longer than six syllables. The language is clear, even if some of the images are ambiguous in their specific meaning. Through highly controlled material, Creeley is better able to capture sensations and impressions.
