The element of Rekdal's poem I found to be most intriguing was the allusions to Homer's
The Odyssey. The first allusion comes in lines 10-12: "It is the song/ of a man strapped to his mast, straining/ and tearing at the straps that bind him." In mythology, sirens are mystical creatures that take the form of beautiful (usually naked) women and sing beautiful songs with the intent of distracting ships and causing them to crash along their island's rocky shore. Odysseus is directed by Circe to plug all the men's ears with beeswax in order to pass the sirens without crashing the ship. Odysseus decides that he wants to hear the sirens' song and opts to have himself tied to the mast as they sail along the island. The crew makes it past the sirens unharmed, despite Odysseus' attempts to break free of his chains and wreck the ship. Again, this allusion reappears in lines 25-27.
Traditionally, the nightingale is a metaphor for the poet, but Rekdal's interpretation seems quiet different. The boy is associated with Odysseus and the bird with the sirens. If this is the case, what is the song? This seems to be a very morbid metaphor in comparison to those past. I think line 32 says, "I have never seen such a live, dead thing before." In the same way that the sirens' song is both beautiful and deadly, so is the nightingale's in some way. To be completely honest, I'm really not sure what Rekdal is trying to say with this allusion, but it is something to think and talk about.
For kicks, here's a piece of ancient Greek pottery depicting the scene of Odysseus and the Sirens ( here taking the physical form of a bird, a notable detail)
Wonderful job with this allusion! Here are a couple more:
ReplyDeleteIn T. S. Eliot's _Wasteland_, the second section describes a conversation between a man and his estranged wife. Above the mantel in the room where she is sitting there is a picture, described like this:
"Above the antique mantel was displayed
As though a window gave upon the sylvan scene
The change of Philomel, by the barbarous king
So rudely forced; yet there the nightingale
Filled all the desert with inviolable voice
And still she cried, and still the world pursues,
“Jug Jug” to dirty ears." (97-103).
The nightingale recurs in section III, in the midst of a description of the Thames in London:
"Twit twit twit
Jug jug jug jug jug jug
So rudely forc’d.
Tereu" (203-6).
The next section of the poem is titled "IV. DEATH BY WATER"; here it is in full:
"Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,
Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep seas swell
And the profit and loss.
A current under sea
Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell
He passed the stages of his age and youth
Entering the whirlpool.
Gentile or Jew
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you." (312-321)
"Why Some Girls Love Horses" had an energy to it regarding possibility. That is, the ability of the horse to follow its own will and rebel. In this homage to the Odyssey we see the opposite, a total lack of control in the midst of pure instinct. Perhaps as we've seen in Keats or Shelley there is an allusiveness in pursuing the nightingale's song. If the poet seeks it out too far it will be their end.
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