Simic in \"Old World,\" it

Simic

In "Old World," it is not immediately apparent whether Simic is speaking to one person, to a specific audience, or to a general audience. It is most likely the poet directs his musings about the soul and eternity to all of humanity, rather than to a specific individual. The audience for this poem is any person who can relate to contemplations of time, eternity, and the potential for a human being to have an eternal soul. Most of humanity is therefore able to relate to the speaker's message in "Old World." The Old World that Simic depicts is that of Sicily. Not only is this Old World existing in contrast to the New World that immigrants like Simic and his Sicilian counterparts embraced; this Old World is also ancient and timeless like the "Columns fallen in the grass like naked lovers."

As an immigrant, Simic writes to other immigrants to ask them to understand the nature of Old vs. New Worlds. "It hasn't made much difference" to believe in the soul, so far in the New World. Everything in the New World is newly minted and manufactured. Instead of "the ruins of some temple" there are skyscrapers and apartment blocks. As Simic muses on a quintessential Sicilian afternoon, with olives, wine, and goat cheese, he inadvertently makes a contrast with the afternoons spent in the New World, which bear this scene no resemblance. The old goddesses of yore have also vanished and "she must not be followed." It can be treacherous to think to hard about the past, suggests the narrator. The wine whispers, "Oh to be one of them," meaning one of the goddesses "old lovers." To pine away for the past is needless nostalgia. It is better to bear in mind the memories of the Old World, keeping those memories close to heart but acknowledging their being only that, memories. The ruins of the ancient temple and its toppled columns are gorgeous in their own right. There is no need to wish to return to the past, to the Old World. Eternity ensures that the past and present are linked together, as "eternity eavesdropping on time."

Even if there is no specific audience for "Old World," the poem may have added depth and meaning to those who have left the Old World for the New. Simic is not Sicilian, and yet his imagery would especially appeal to those from Mediterranean countries. The Romans were in Serbia, though, so there is a thematic link between the forgotten empires of Italy and Simic's own Serbian lands.

In "County Fair," the audience is even more elusive than it is in "Old World." The speaker does use the first person plural, bringing the audience actively into the action of the poem. In this sense, "County Fair" speaks to the audience on an intimate personal level. The narrator includes the reader in the action, as the poet is asking the reader to determine what "County Fair" means to the individual. There are no absolute meanings embedded in the poem. Instead, the poem can be taken differently to have an emotional and psychological impact on each person according to individual backgrounds. For example, some readers will have never gone to a county fair where there are "freak" shows like that of a six-legged dog or a bearded lady. Others will have looked forward to county fairs every year in their childhood, and the poem will speak to them differently and on a more visceral level of memory.