[991] Seascape

Guest poem submitted by Aseem Kaul, <dattadayadhvamdamyata@>:

In memoriam M.A.S

There are some days the happy ocean lies
Like an unfingered harp, below the land.
Afternoon guilds all the silent wires
Into a burning music for the eyes
On mirrors flashing between fine-strung fires
The shore, heaped up with roses, horses, spires
Wanders on water tall above ribbed sand.

The motionlessness of the hot sky tires
And a sigh, like a woman's from inland,
Brushes the instrument with shadowy hand
Drawing across those wires some gull's sharp cry
Or bell, or shout, from distant, hedged-in, shires;
These, deep as anchors, the hushing wave buries.

Then from the shore, two zig-zag butterflies
Like errant dog-roses cross the bright strand
Spiralling over waves in dizzy gyres
Until the fall in wet reflected skies.
They drown. Fishermen understand
Such wings sunk in such ritual sacrifice.

Remembering legends of undersea, drowned cities.
What voyagers, oh what heroes, flamed like pyres
With helmets plumed have set forth from some island
And them the seas engulfed.  Their eyes
Distorted to the cruel waves desires,
Glitter with coins through the tide scarcely scanned,
While, far above, that harp assumes their sighs.

	-- Stephen Spender

One of my favourite poems about the sea - I'm fascinated by the way Spender
manages to create a poem that, rather like the sea, is full of movement, but
is fundamentally unmoving. This is not just a sombre poem - it is a poem in
which all movement (butterflies, winds, invasions) is drowned and sacrificed
to the staid permanence of the afternoon, of the sea, of death. Even the
sorrow is gentle here - like a soft undertow of current tugging at you - a
requiem of harps and not of trumpets.

The other thing I love about this poem is the rhyme (I can't honestly
remember having read any other Spender where the rhyme pattern is this
complex) with the constant repetition of rhymes creating a resonance that
however avoids becoming a regular beat - thus creating a sound that is
musical yet dissonant.

Aseem.

From: "Karve, Amol" <amol.karve@>

AT,

Spender has also written a book on the Process of Creativity from which
Khandwalla (of IIM-A fame) has liberally quoted, in his book "The Fourth
Eye" - an attempt at humor I think, which was, sadly, part of coursework at
my B-school.  It probably is worthwhile taking a dekko at that for more such
gems, in case you already havent done that.

Regards,

Amol (you wont remember me - from your Bom. Univ. quizzing days)