This “fickle maid” relates her story, a story of love unrequited, but as she describes her inner conflict, we receive a vision of the maid, no longer young:
“Whereupon the thought might think sometime it saw
The carcass of a beauty spent and done;
Time had not scythed all that youth begun,
Nor youth all quit; but, spite of heaven’s fell rage,
Some beauty peept through lattice of sear’d age.”
Crying despondently and wiping her eyes with a handkerchief, the maid tells a respectable man, who is grazing his cattle nearby, of her troubles.
“Not age, but sorrow, over me hath power;
I might as yet have been a spreading flower,
Fresh to myself, if I had self-applied
Love to myself, and to no love beside.”
She fell in love with a young man with a silken tongue and enchanting brown curls, who stole her heart in spite of other more questionable qualities.
“His qualities were beauteous as his form,
For maiden-tongued he was, and thereof free;
Yet, if men moved him, was he such a storm
As oft twixt May and April to see,
When winds breathe sweet, unruly though they be.
His rudeness so with his authorized youth
Did livery falseness in a pride of truth.”
She “gave him all my flower,” without being demanding of him like others. She claimed that “mine honour shielded” but she became an “amorous spoil.” Even though she knew of his other women, of his “foul beguiling” and of his illegitimate children, still she is taken in by his false charm. Yet, in spite of this sorrow that is a burden to her heart, she claims that she would be captivated by him all over again.
O, that infected moisture of his eyes,
O, that false fire which in his cheek so glow’d,
O, that forced thunder from his heart did fly,
O, that sad breath his spongy lungs bestow’d,
O, all that borrow’d motion seeming ow’d,
Would yet again betray the fore-betray’d,
And new pervert a reconciled maid.
Young Woman in a Straw Hat (1901)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
source Wikiart
Popular in medieval and renaissance times, this “complaint poem” is written in rhyme royal (ababbcc), with seven lines per stanza in iambic pentameter, which I just encountered while recently reading The Brubury Tales (in The Feet’s Prologue), a take on Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. Because this style was unusual for Shakespeare, some critics question his authorship, yet there are parts of the poem that certainly echo of Shakespeare, and coincidentially the first stanza is very close to the first stanza of The Rape of Lucrece.
As for figures of speech, the following are included in the poem: alliteration, anaphora, hyperbole, metaphor, paradox, personification and simile. Could I identify them all on the first read? No, but that means that I’ll have to read The Lover’s Complaint again!
Cadmus and Minerva (17th century) Jacob Jordaens source Wikimedia Commons
Agenor commands Cadmus to find his sister, Europa, yet while he wanders near and far, success eludes him, until the oracle of Apollo tells him to find a heifer who has never worn a yoke and there in Boeotia, he is to build his city, Thebes. Cadmus kills a serpent and under Minerva’s orders, plants its teeth from which spring men, but warriors that, in their battle frenzy, kill each other until there are only five left: Echion and four others. Together they build the walls of Thebes.
Cadmus’ first sorrow lay in his grandson, Actaeon, who when out hunting with his friends, came across Diana bathing in a pool, and for having viewed the sacred virgin, Actaeon is transformed into a stag by the goddess. Yet the goddess is not satisfied with such a benign punishment, he is hunted by his own hunting dogs until,
“Upon all side, his hounds have hemmed him in; they sink their muzzles into every limb — the flesh of their own master in false guise as stag. Diana was not satisfied until, so mangled, young Actaeon died …”
Thus, Juno’s rage against Europa, and all her blood, stemming from the house of Agenor, is assuaged.
Jove and Semele (1695) Sebastiano Ricci source Wikipedia
Juno learns that Cadmus’ daughter, Semele, is pregnant by Jove and, seeking revenge, she disguises herself as the girl’s nurse and counsels her to ask Jove to see him in all his powers. Unsuspecting, Semele makes this request of her lover and, unable to refuse her, she is killed by his bolts of light and turned to ash. However, her unborn son, Bacchus, is rescued, sewen into the thigh of Jove and then given to Nysan nymphs upon his birth.
To settle an argument over whether men or women get more pleasure in love, Jove and Juno defer to Tiresias, who knew love as both genders (having been transformed by mating serpents to a woman and back again). Furious at Tiresias siding with Jove, Juno steals away his sight, and Jove gives him the gift of prophecy for recompense.
Asked by the river nymph, Liriope, if her son, Narcissus, would live to see a long life, Tiresias’ answer “Yes, if he never knows himself,” was a cryptic puzzle. Yet the boy, loved by youths and girls alike, has a disdain for them all, including a nymph, named Echo, whom he spurns, and she wastes away until only her voice remains. Finally, a youth prays to the gods that Narcissus receive the same treatment as they, and one day, as he sees his reflection in a pool, he immediately falls in love.
” … he is the seeker and the sought, the longed-for and the one who longs; he is the arsonist — and is the scorched.”
He pines away, as had Echo, and eventually dies, but instead of a body, only a white-petalled flower with a yellow centre remains.
Tiresias’ reputation grows but, Pentheus, Echion’s son, mocks Tiresias and his blindness, as he also scorns all the gods, especially refusing the rites of Bacchus. The old man prophesies that Bacchus will soon come and if Pentheus does not accept him, he will be torn to pieces.
” ……………………. and then you will complain that, in my blindness, I saw far too well.”
Bacchus arrives and Pentheus is in a fury not even his grandfather, Cadmon, can assuage. He captures a priest of Bacchus, Acoetes, who tells of his encounter with a young Bacchus on a ship, and of his god-like appearance. When all the crew but Acoetes refused to take Bacchus to his destination, they were all turned into sea-monsters. Enraged by the story, Pentheus finds the revellers on Mount Cithaeron, but tragically his mother is the first to see him. Claiming that he is a boar, she incites her sisters to tear him to pieces, ripping off his head with her own hands.
I’m noticing quite a bit of irony in this book: Cadmus’ warrior’s instead of killing an enemy, kill each other; Actaeon, the hunter, becomes the hunted; Semele is killed by the power/love of her lover, and in fact, unknowingly requests her own death; Narcissus rejects all, yet in the end also rejects himself; Tiresias’ knowledge causes his blindness; Pentheus, through rejecting sacred rites, becomes a sacrifice himself, and Pentheus’ mother kills her own son. Ovid’s world is very bleak, and he ensures that we experience it to the fullest.
Phaeton / The Heliades /Cycnus /Phoebus / Callisto / Arcas / The Raven / Coronis, the Raven, the Crow, Nyctimene / Ocyrohoe / Battus / Mercury, Herse, Aglauros / Europa & Jove
The Fall of Phaeton (c. 1604-05) Peter Paul Ruebens source Wikimedia Commons
Phaethon reaches the gorgeous palace of Phoebus, where his father confirms his birthright. Arrogantly, Phaeton requests to drive his chariot, and sadly Phoebus concedes, giving instructions to his son for his safe journey. Thetis unbars the way for her grandson and the horses leap high in the air, but it’s as if they have no rider and control is lost. Phaethon regrets his decision, yet is paralyzed and the chariot finally plunges down to earth destroying large swaths of it with fire. The earth cries out and “the Almighty Father” (Jove) hurls a thunderbolt, unseating Phaeton, yet combatting fire with fire. Phaeton, consumed by the fire, is buried by the river Po by the Naiads, while his father in grief buries his face and shuts out the sun for a day. Clymene laments with her daughters, the Heliades, at her son’s grave, but her daughters metamorphosize into trees in spite of her attempts to save them.
Cycnus, a king of Liguria and a relative of Phaeton’s, goes to pay his respects and is transformed into a swan, a bird who does not trust to seek the sky because of Jove’s lightning bolts.
Jove then inspects the heavens and earth for damage from the fire, but spots a nymph, Callisto and, disguising himself as the goddess Diana before reappearing in his normal form, rapes her in spite of her frantic struggles. Diana discovers her shame and sends her away, and when Juno learns of Jove’s crime and of the son born to Callisto, Arcas, she transforms Callisto into a bear. Later, Arcas encounters his mother and nearly kills her, but Jove intervenes, grabbing both and placing them in the sky as Ursa Major and Minor.
As Juno is enraged at the compliment given to Callisto, she travels to heaven in her chariot which is drawn by the peacocks who have recently changed hue. We hear of another bird, Phoebus’ sacred bird, the Raven, who also gets his colour changed from white to black, as punishment for his talkative chatter. He refuses to listen to the Crow’s warning, whose feathers were transformed as he informed on the three daughters of the bi-form Cecrops, Pandrosos, Herse and Aglauros, when they looked into a basket and discovered a baby that had been formed by the seed of Vulcan, after he attempt to rape Minerva. Minerva, however, turns him black for his snitching, and the poor crow relates that before this incident, he had been a princess, but was transformed into a crow while escaping from the sea-god who attempted to ravish her. Yet now he is supplanted in the affections of Minerva by Nyctimene, the owl, oh woe is he! The Raven, however, declines to heed the crow’s wise wisdom, and instead reveals to Apollo (Phoebus) that his love, Coronis had lain beside a Thessalian youth. Inflamed with hot fury, Apollo kills Coronis yet before she is burned, he snatches their unborn son, Aesculapius, from her womb and gives him to the centaur, Chiron, to raise. The Raven, however, receives his due and is banished. We learned of this same story in Chaucer’s The Manciple’s Tale.
The daughter of Chiron, Ocyrhoe, prophesies over Aesculapius, saying that he will become a great healer and god. Her father’s immortality will also change to mortality, but as she speaks she is transfigured into the form of a horse with a new name, Hippe.
Landscape with Mercury and Battus (1618) Jacob Pynas source Wikimedia Commons
Meanwhile, bereft with grief, Phoebus is roaming the hills in the guise of a shepherd, but in his mourning over the fate of Coronis, his cows wander off and are hidden by Mercury. Yet an old man named Battus witnesses the theft, but Mercury buys off his silence with a choice cow from the herd. Battus promises a stone would give more information than he. To test the old man’s resolve, Mercury disguises himself and returns asking for “his cows” and offering Battus a cow from the herd for information on the theft. Battus reveals all and Mercury changes him into a stone (now called a touchstone or tellstone) in payment for his betrayal.
Mercury spots Herse, daughter of Cecrops, and is determined to possess her. He enlists the help of her sister, Aglauros, but Envy, spurred by Minerva, poisons Aglauros. Infected with resentment of her sister’s happiness, she attempts to prevent Mercury from entering her bedroom, and he turns Aglauros into a statue.
Returning to heaven, Mercury is directed by Jove to drive the king Agenor’s cattle down to the shore, yet unbeknownst to him, Jove is planning the capture of the daughter of the king, Europa. He disguises himself as a perfect white bull, entices the girl, and then rides away into the ocean with her on his back.
The Abductiion of Europa (1715) Jean-François de Troy source Wikipedia
“Sing, Ovid, to me of Metamorphoses, and breath all these stories into my mind as a remembrance of your fine craft” ………. But since there are so many mythological stories in this book, and Metamorphoses is either referred to, or used as a basis for stories in so many other works of literature, I’ve decided to compile reasonably detailed posts. My mind is certainly not going to hold such detail, so my blog will have to.
Book I
Prologue / The Creation / The Four Ages / The Giants / Lycaon / The Flood/ Deucalion & Pyrrha / Python / Apollo & Daphne / Io & Jove / Syrinx / Io & Jove / Phaeton
“My soul would sing of metamorphoses.
But since, o gods, you were the source of these
bodies becoming other bodies, breathe
your breath into my book of changes; may
the song I sing be seamless as its way
weaves from the world’s beginning to our day.”
Creation begins featureless and confused, both land and seas uninhabitable. Opposites battle and there is chaos. “A god” and nature come together to bring unity and organization to the world, and there are two possibilities as to the birth of man:
He is created from a divine seed
Prometheus made him from new-made earth and rainwater.
To man, “he gave a face that is held high; he had man stand erect, his eyes upon the stars ….”
During the first or golden age, laws and punishment do not exist as all kept faith by righteousness. and man only needed to gather as the harvest was plentiful.
Saturn is banished and his son, Jove’s rule begins, starting the second or silver age.Jove split the year into seasons, and the change of weather prompted men to build houses.As the bullock groaned under their yokes we sense a decline in the ease of life.
The third bronze agebegat more cruelty and battle, yet it was not sacrilegious.
The fourth and last age, the age of iron, began the foulest of all ages and “the earth saw the flight of faith and modesty and truth” and in their place sprang up wicked behaviour.Instead of accepting the earth in an almost innocent way, only seeking to fulfill their basic needs, men instead began to seek beyond their needs to their wants, exploring and pursuing treasures which corrupted their simple faith.The lust for gold and iron brought wars, and distrust and familial discontent and strife followed.
Jove must contend first with the Giants, who attempt to gain control of the sky, and then man who is now scattered all over the earth, doing what he will. They are tainted and like a pestilence, and he longs to eradicate their infestation. Yet the other gods are worried; if Jove eradicates man, who will worship them, so Jove employs a new plan, enlisting different gods to create a flood and only two people survive: Deucalion, the son of Prometheus, and his wife, Pyrrha.
Deucalion & Pyrrha (1635) Giovanni Maria Bottalla source Wikimedia Commons
Deucalion is overcome when he sees the devastation of the earth and decides to pray to the oracle but is told that they need to throw behind them the bones of the great mother.Pyrrha is terrified that she needs to offend the Shade of her mother, but her husband says the great mother is earth and they need only throw stones.Amazingly the stones become the new race of men.
Apollo and Daphne (1908) John William Waterhouse source Wikimedia Commons
Python, a terrible serpent, slithers from the earth, but Phoebus (Apollo) kills him with his arrows, and the sacred Pythian games were establish in memory of the act. Daphne, daughter of the river god, was Phoebus’ first love but Cupid, resentful at Phoebus’ mocking of him, shoots him with an arrow that ignites love and Daphne with one that spurns it. Apollo pursues, and as he catches her, in response to a prayer to her father, she is turned into a laurel tree. Yet Apollo loves her still, and this is why the leaves of the laurel crown the heads of the Roman chieftains.
Juno Confiding Io to the Care of Argus (1660) Claude Lorrain source Wikimedia Commons
The river god, Inachus wept for his missing daughter Io. She is fleeing the god, Jove, who catches her and rapes her, yet to hide his deed from his wife, Juno, he turns Io into a beautiful white cow. Yet Juno is not easily fooled and she sets a guard on Io, Argus of the hundred eyes, who never sleeps with all closed at once. Jove finally feels compassion at Io’s plight and sends Mercury to lull Argus to sleep with his reed pipes with a song of Syrinx (who fleeing from Pan was turned into a reed), and then he cuts off his head. Juno set the eyes of Argus into the tale of a peacock, whereas Io returns to her original form in her refuge on the banks of the Nile and becomes the goddess, Isis.
Io’s son by Jove, Epaphus, mocked the son of Phoebus, Phaeton’s, claim that the Sun was his father. Mortified, he asks Clymene, his mother, for proof and she confirms the truth, sending him across Ethiopia and India to Phoebus’ palace.
Mercury, Argus and Io (1592) Abraham Bloemaert source Wikimedia Commons
From O’s brilliant post, I realized that it would be fun and helpful to add the transformations in each book in a more obvious form than merely reading of them in the text. So here they are!
Metamorphoses
Chaos ❥ Creation
Golden Age ❥ Silver Age ❥ Bronze Age ❥ Iron Age
Giant’s Race ❥ New Race
Lycaon ❥ Wolf
Irreligious, Combative Men ❥ Deucalion & Pyrrha ⇒ (via Rocks) ❥ New Mankind
“When in April, and it hasn’t yet rained, And the drought of March has again sustained Another year of our eternal spring; Then old Santa Ana begins to sing That fiery yet most familiar tune How Los Angeles always feels like June ….”
No, The Brubury Tales are not my usual classics bent, but since it is based on a classic, The Canterbury Tales, I decided to make them, not only a pairing, but a 2015 challenge.
In this poem, we are not confronted with pilgrims, but seven security guards who work at the Holiday Inn in L.A. Six men and one woman make up their team, as they perform their duties during the unsettled times of the Los Angeles race riots. The prologue introduces each of them: Leo Kapitanski, Alex Loma, John Shamburger, Joseph Dator, J.T. (the narrator), Rolla Amin, and Darrin Arita or “The Feet”.
As Christmas is approaching, each guard is lobbying for vacation time during the holidays, but Leo Kapitanski, their security chief, comes up with a unique idea. Each one of the guards must tell a tale, and the guard who crafts the best tale, will be awarded with the time off.
Leo is the first to tell his tale and exhibits some fine alliterative verse, reminiscent of the style of the Pearl poet (Sir Gawain & the Green Knight):
“Those were tumultuous times in Olde Yellowfield: When widespread war had wracked the west; As Pestilence and plague plundered through the east; And silky southern skies, soot-saddened into shade As burnt and billowing breaths of northern brush Did daily darken the heavens in dismal doom! And for years was Olde Yellowfield yanked to black By those soot-stacks that steadily stole the sun. Olde Yellowfield was new Blackfield, banned from light …”
The Brubury Tales illustration
by Keith Draws source
Yet not everyone appreciates such poetical talents, and The Feet protests over this “literary crap”. So Leo agrees to tell another tale full of vice, since no one can appreciate a story well-told, because:
“‘In today’s world where television rules, Personally, I blame the public schools.’ But Leo disagreed a little bit, ‘Takes a village to raise an idiot.'”
Leo’s tale weeps full of sorrow and distress, ringing with shades of lost chances and bitter regret, as a man tries to navigate the paths of life and love and fails miserably, a red stain left on his attempt, an unendurable burden on his heart.
There are seven tales in all, in a variety of settings and time periods, covering a number of different issues with respect to love, marriage, betrayal, regret, and death, yet hope resonates in these explorations of life’s struggles and victories. Humour is also woven into the fabric of the narrative, delivered with an adeptness that gives a sublime harmonization with the other serious themes. Though each tale has a modern twist, they bear resemblance to stories of Dostoyevsky, Boccaccio, Saki, Poe, O’Henry, Dickens, Twain, the Bible, Dante, Gilman, Crane, Anderson and Bierce, and it’s a veritable treasure hunt, to sift through the narrative to see if one can spot these recognizable classics. There even is a remake of Omar Kayyam’s The Rubaiyat, which is very cleverly done. In another twist to the story, the author himself makes an appearance as the supervisor. There is an abundance of literary wealth within this book, and one can imagine the work as a tapestry; each thread you pull leads to a new idea, or allusion, or theme, working singly and yet together to form a unique and complex whole.
With regard to the poetic structure, it’s mostly comprised of couplets in iambic pentameter, echoing very much of Chaucer’s style and tone. Yet there are variations in poetic style at certain points during the tales which helps to give a different flavour to the stories. The author is also is very adept at changing the voice of the characters, each one sounding like an individual and making it very easy for the reader to step into their world.
This read completes my The Canterbury Tales/The Brubury Tales Project for 2015, and I think I can say that it was my favourite project of the year. Not only was I pleasantly surprised at the enjoyment that I received from Chaucer’s merry and sometimes, raunchy tale, I was blown away by The Brubury Tales and the talent and aptitude of its author. A great project, all around!
A Canadian War Factory (1943) Wyndham Lewis source Wikiart
I can’t forget to stop and honour all the men and women who have fought and lost their lives in wars past and present, so that we are able to have the freedom that we enjoy in Canada, and other countries in the world. Heroes they remain, as they were willing to fight when their country needed them.
After being appealed to by a number of deposed queens and duchesses from Thebes, King Theseus of Athens attacks the city and gains victory over Creon, King of Thebes. During the fighting, two knights named Palamon and Arcite, are taken prisoner and thrown into a dungeon. Left to rot there forever, Palamon one day spies Emelye, who is as fair as any damsel and the sister of Theseus’ wife Hippolyta, and he falls in love. Arcite, wondering at this cousin’s lovelorn look, spots her too, claims his love of her, and acrimony is born within the love triangle of the cousins.
Portrait of a Knight (1510) Vittore Carpaccio source Wikiart
Years later, Arcite is released by Theseus upon request of a friend, but is sentenced to exile from which he laments Palamon’s better fate of prison, due to his being able to gaze upon Emelye, whereas Arcite has now been denied that pleasure. Eventually he risks returning to Athens in diguise as a page named Philostratus, who enters Emelye’s household. One day he comes upon Palamon, who has escaped, they begin to fight but are stayed by Theseus who announces that he will set up a grand tournament of knights, and the one who is the victor will win Emelye’s hand in marriage.
Meanwhile, we find, that while Emelye has been the centre of this strife and turmoil, that she actually does not wish to marry either knight. She relates to the goddess, Diana:
“To whom are open earth and sea and sky, Goddess of maidens, well you know that I Desire to be a maiden all my life, And never to be a man’s love nor his wife. Among your followers I have kept my place, A maid, in love with hunting and the chase And to go walking in the greenwood wild And not to be a wife and be with child; For nothing will I have to do with man. Now help me, lady, since you may and can.”
But while Diana could help her, she refuses, stating that Emelye’s destiny has been ordained to marry one of the knights, but which, she will not tell. Emelye submits to her fate with good grace.
Emilie dans le jardin observée par Arcitas et Palamon emprisonnés (1460) source Wikimedia Commons
Palamon prays to Venus for victory, but we get a long description of Arcite in his battle attire before we hear of him offering sacrifices, and for him, it is to the god, Mars; so we have Palamon appealing to the goddess of Love, and Arcite appealing to the god of War. Who do you think will win?
Ah, it appears that Arcite triumphs, bearing down Palamon and his knights, capturing him and taking him to the stake. Venus is shamed with the outcome, but Saturn asssures her that she will also have her desire. But how, with Palamon conquered and Arcite set to wed Emelye?
Well, Arcite has little time to enjoy his achievement. Helmetless, he is pitched to the ground by his horse, landing on his head and receiving mortal wounds. He lasts a short time before succumbing, and Emelye and Palamon are in mourning. But good King Theseus delivers a long speech about the Prime Mover and how all earthly beings must submit to the higher order of things. He blesses the wedding of Palamon and Emelye, and they live happily without jealousy and with extreme tenderness.
One can tell that there is much more to this tale than what is simple cloaking the surface. First, there is the obvious emphasis on fate or destiny or a higher power: Emelye, though she does not wish to marry, readily capitulates to Venus’ edict that she must; and, of of course, while it initially appears to all the people that Arcite will wed Emelye, there is a “blueprint” already in place for everyone’s destiny that man, in his puniness, cannot yet see. A life lived well is to submit to the inevitable, yet take opportunities when they come to you.
Emilie à la chasse assistant au combat entre Arcitas et Palamon Source: Wikimedia Commons
There is also an emphasis on nature and it’s interaction with man. The General Prologue initially drew us right into Nature and Spring “Whan that Aprille with his shoures sote, The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote, And bathed every veyne in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is the flour.” From the sky and nature, we are then taken to be introduced to the earthly pilgrims. In The Knight’s Tale, in the building of the sepulcher for Arcite, there is an obvious battle between nature and man, as Theseus fells the “old oaks” to make a funeral bier:
“You will not hear from me how all the trees Were felled, nor how the local deities, Nymphs, fauns, and hamadryads and the rest, Ran up and down, scattered and dispossessed, Nor how the beasts and wood birds, one and all, Fled terrified when the trunks began to fall; Nor how the ground stood all aghast and bright, Affronted with the unfamiliar light ….”
There is a continuous tension between man and his environment, again perhaps due to either his lack of foresight, or his inability to understand the grand plan of the Prime Mover.
And, of course, in the battle between Arcite and Palamon and their gods, in spite of the appearance of war winning over love, it is love which achieves the ultimate victory.
I’m certain there are many other themes included, such as pageantry, hierarchical Medevial structure, and not so much the capriciousness of the gods, but the uncertainty of destiny, but I’ve probably explored this tale as much as I can for the first read. One curious point struck me though ….. although this story is set in Greece, the gods are all given Roman names, instead of their Greek ones. I have no idea why, but it is a puzzling choice.
Born in Toledo in 1501, de la Vega was one of the first Spanish poets to introduce Italian verse forms and techniques to Spain. Mastering five languages as well as having a good aptitude for music, de la Vega eventually joined the Spanish military and died at 35 years old from a wound sustained in battle in Nice, France. His poetry has been fortunate to be consistently popular during his life and up until present times.
In Sonnet XXIX, de la Vega explores the Greek myth of Hero (Ὴρὠ) and Leander (Λὲανδρος). Each night Leander swam the Hellespont (the modern Dardanelles) to be with his lovely Hero, who lived in a tower in Sestos by the sea. She would hang a lamp for him in her high tower to guide his path, however, on a particularly stormy night, the waves buffeted Leander, the wind blew out Hero’s lamp, and brave Leander tragically drowned in the raging waters. Bereft, Hero threw herself from her tower into the pitiless sea, which joined them in death, as it had kept them apart in life.
If my memory serves me well, I believe this poem is a favourite of Jason at Literature Frenzy and it was his love of it that inspired me to include it in my Deal Me In Challenge. Without this inspiration, it would probably still be unread, as Keats, for some reason, intimidates my uneducated poetic sensibilities.
Keats initially uses extreme contrasts of his dulled, poisoned senses to the happy nightingale, its song urging him out of his despair; one wonders if it will completely succeed. In the second stanza the poet relates his desire for wine. Why? Because wine is made from grapes, will it allow him to meld more with nature, or does he simply want to get intoxicated to forget his troubles? He admits then that he wishes to escape the suffering of life and expresses regret at the transience of youth and life. Ah, now he claims that he won’t reach the nightingale through wine but poetry, and expresses almost a dualism in that his brain is dull perhaps still with care, yet he is already with the joyous nightingale. The fifth stanza is even more curious. Though he is in the forest with the nightingale, he cannot see the beauty there, as if he can only get glimpes as he is unable to liberate himself from life’s hardship. The poet admits to being “half in love with …. Death,” —- I had thought the poet was equating the nightingale’s song with joy, but now he appears to be marrying it with death. Is this part of his confusion or something deeper that I’m missing? Yet if he dies, he will cease to hear the song, so perhaps he realizes the dilemma. The poet then equates the nightingale with immortality and, as we’ve read, the bird almost transcends earthly constraints; its song has been a continuous joy in a temporal world. But alas, the poet is recalled to his sad state, the nightingale’s song abandons him and he is left to wonder if his whole experience was real or a dream.
Portrait of Keats listening to a nightingale (1845) Joseph Severn source Wikipedia
This was certainly a difficult poem for a rank amateur. The themes I could pick up were isolation, death, a transcendent joy that perhaps may be unreachable at least for the poet, abandonment, disconnection, transience of life, and a longing for something beyond this life.
As I was reading, I wondered if the poet was trying to match his creative expression with the nightingale’s song. It would seem impossible to create at the level of God, but I felt such inspiration in the poem, almost as if Keats was trying to create the poem as intensely as the poet of the poem was wishing to escape earthly adversity.
I’m no expert, but this poem seems to pair well with Percy Bysshe Shelley’s To A Skylark, which O reviewed recently on her blog Behold the Stars. Both poets put nature front and centre, but Shelley has a much more positive outlook, while Keats’ poem is filled with more nuanced emotions and contradictions. The similarities and contrasts between the two are intriguing.
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