 |
| CALYPSO'S ISLE, 1897 Herbert Draper |
NOT FAR FROM CALYPSO'S EPIC ISLE
LAY WRETCHED ROCKS & WRATHFUL WAVES
AE CALYPSO, AE EEEE I A
SING CALYPSO, OF ROBIN IN PASSING
PASSING IN ROBIN'S AEAEA BREEZE
MUSE, CALYPSO, OF WE, THE PEOPLE
SPARED BY OUR WARS AND THE WAILING SEA
GIFTED THAT GRIN IN A STEM OF HE'S
A BREAST-BURNT STEM ON A ROBIN TREE
SING CALYPSO PASSING IN ROBIN
SING OF THE MANY-TURNED MAN
©2014
CALYPSO REQVIESCAT stephaniepope mythopoetry.com
#ohj for July 1, 2014 epic, calypso
notes
1. AEAEA is the Greek name for Circe's Isle. Circe's Isle lay along the way to Persephone's gate leading to the underworld. AEAEA is also another name for Calypso, which means "hider" or
"hide-away".
2. Regarding the mythic imagination and image of the robin in folklore, you will find a bit of interesting ideas that cluster around the image in the blog, "From Bedroom To Study" see Monday, 10 December, 2012,
http://from-bedroom-to-study.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-fabled-folklore-of-robin-redbreast.html
3.
Wiki also provides the following cultural depictions of the European robin with christic gloss, Robin Redbreast and the iconic, Norse image of robin as a storm-cloud bird:
The robin features prominently in British folklore, and that of northwestern France, but much less so in other parts of Europe.
[30] It was held to be a storm-cloud bird and sacred to
Thor, the god of thunder, in
Norse mythology.
[31] Robins also feature in the traditional children's tale,
Babes in the Wood; the birds cover the dead bodies of the children.
[32] More recently, the robin has become strongly associated with
Christmas, taking a starring role on many
Christmas cards since the mid 19th century.
[32] The robin has also appeared on many Christmas postage stamps. An old British
folk taleseeks to explain the robin's distinctive breast. Legend has it that when
Jesus was dying on the cross, the robin, then simply brown in colour, flew to his side and sang into his ear in order to comfort him in his pain. The blood from his wounds stained the robin's breast, and thereafter all robins got the mark of Christ's blood upon them.
[31][33] An alternative legend has it that its breast was scorched fetching water for souls in Purgatory.
[32] The association with Christmas, however, more probably arises from the fact that postmen in
Victorian Britain wore red jackets and were nicknamed "Robins"; the robin featured on the Christmas card is an emblem of the postman delivering the card.
[34]
In the 1960s, in a vote publicised by
The Times newspaper, the robin was adopted as the unofficial national bird of the UK.
[35] The robin was then used as a symbol of a Bird Protection Society.
[36]
4. For the literary archetypal image of the hanged man see W. H. Auden's lines
We would rather be ruined than changed
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
& let our illusions die.
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