The Signature of All Things by Kenneth Rexroth
"The Signature of All Things" is a poem by Kenneth Rexroth that explores the profound relationship between the physical world and spiritual experience. Divided into three parts, the poem is deeply influenced by the mystic Jakob Böhme, whose ideas frame the poet's journey through nature and self-discovery. Beginning with a vivid, sensory description of the poet's surroundings, the poem reflects on the cycles of life, love, and renewal, using rich imagery of flora and fauna to illustrate deeper spiritual truths.
As the poet transitions from a state of passive observation to an active engagement with nature, he encounters symbols of wisdom and communion, such as the owl and the heifers in a serene landscape. The theme of transformation is central, culminating in the metaphor of a rotten log repurposed as kindling, signifying renewal and the interconnectedness of life experiences. Rexroth’s use of unrhymed, measured lines conveys the intimacy of personal reflection, drawing readers into a contemplative space that encourages them to ponder their own connections to the world around them. Overall, the poem serves as a meditation on existence, love, and the pursuit of enlightenment through the natural world.
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The Signature of All Things by Kenneth Rexroth
First published: 1949, in The Signature of All Things
Type of poem: Lyric
The Poem
“The Signature of All Things” is divided into three parts: The first comprises thirty-two-lines; the second, twenty-five; and the third, twenty. The title of the poem derives from a book by the seventeenth century mystic Jakob Böhme, the reading of which initiates the poem. Written in the first person, the poem relates the visionary, intensely spiritual experience of the poet.
True to Böhme’s teaching that the “outward visible world with all its beings is a signature, or figure, of the inward spiritual world,” the poet begins with the image of his body “stretched bathed in the sun”; from his own physical being, the poet’s awareness radiates to his surroundings, progressively more animate: water, laurel tree, and creatures.
These creatures perform the endless cycle of birth and death: The wren “broods in her moss-domed nest”; a newt “struggles with a white moth/ Drowning in the pool.” Such observations lead the poet to recall his relationships, whether with humans—“those who have loved me”—or his natural environment—the “mountains I have climbed,” the “seas I have swum in.” These reminiscences prove redemptive; his “sin and trouble fall away/ Like Christian’s bundle.” This reference to John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (1678, 1684) reinforces the sense of the poet’s life as a pilgrimage of love. Böhme, as the poet describes, “saw the world as streaming/ In the electrolysis of love.” Electrolysis, a chemical transformation involving dynamic currents, can serve as a purification process.
The second part of the poem finds the recumbent poet now standing “at the wood’s edge.” Following the mystic way, he has emptied himself of all preconceptions: “Watching the darkness, listening/ To the stillness.” His humility is rewarded; an owl—a symbol of wisdom—arrives and awakens him to a world brimming with light. He proceeds to an oak grove, formerly the site of an Indian village. There he comes upon a group of heifers, “Black and white, all lying down/ Quietly together.” Opposites—life and death, black and white—resolve in a tranquil scene of fruitfulness and communion.
In the final part of the poem, the poet recovers a rotten log from the bottom of a pool. Once it dries in the sun for a month—a full cycle of the moon—he chops it for kindling. Emerging late that night, after reading “saints” and “philosophers” on “the destiney of man,” the poet looks up at the “swaying island of stars,” then down at his feet, where all about him are “scattered chips/ Of pale cold light” that are “alive.” Witness to and finally active participant in the cycle of renewal, the poet forms the nexus of living worlds of light—experiencing his destiny.
Forms and Devices
In keeping with its sacramental vision, the poem abounds in natural imagery. Flora and fauna; elements of earth, air, fire, and water; senses of sight, sound, and smell—all direct the poet’s inner journey toward the epiphany that climaxes the work. A visionary poet in the tradition of William Blake, Kenneth Rexroth has stated, “Poetry is vision, the pure act of sensual communion and contemplation.”
Adhering to the doctrine of correspondences taught by the mystic Böhme, the poet evokes nature as emblematic of spiritual realities. The laurel tree symbolizes expiation and eternity as well as victory and triumph. The oak, rooted in the graves of Indians, connotes endurance; sacred to Zeus, it represents the essence of divine power. Such imagery infuses the poem with a sense of rebirth. The clearest metaphor of renewal is left for last: the rotten log that the poet transforms into kindling fuel.
The setting of July, the height of summer, implies growth and maturity. The poet, at “forty summers,” is ripe for the mystical rebirth of his sensual awareness and creative power, which he experiences in the course of the poem. The context of these awakenings is described in the imagery of illumination: the owl’s eyes “glow”; the meadow is “bright as snow”; creatures appear in the “blur of brightness” and “cobwebbed light”; scattered wood chips are “ingots/ Of quivering phosphorescence.”
The poet conjures these sacramental images in familiar language. The unrhymed measured lines—ranging from eight syllables each in the first part of the poem to seven in the last two—convey the intimacy of conversation. Rexroth called this syllabic form “natural numbers,” saying that it allowed him to emphasize the “natural cadences of speech.”