This Side of Acheron
Sometimes, for a fleeting span,
they may stand afloat on the dull sluggish waters,
among the thick reeds and canes growing on the miry side,
as castaways and stream drifts of the River Rhine
—a stray slain Captain Action and stray toy soldiers from a missing army of yoreamong the thick reeds and canes growing on the miry side,
as castaways and stream drifts of the River Rhine
—a broken toy gun—the silver damask handgun of Zorro—
a ruined comic book and a dim ungraspable map embossed on brass.
Images and words combine to preserve them all,
abismally meaningful imaginative devices as dense as divinatory signs,
spawning shorelessly meaningful images and links—
spawning shorelessly meaningful images and links—
«For all poetry is in a sense memory: all art, indeed, is
a mnemonic gathering of the innumerable and lost
into the found and unique.»
a mnemonic gathering of the innumerable and lost
into the found and unique.»
Thus,
comes afloat sometimes from the deep
in which
And thus, from childhood recollections comes afloat, bright yet dim,
the same picture suddenly appearing through the green forest twilightto the eyes of Kalar made captive:
—ruins of an ancient Roman town amidst African primeval forest …
From where the quotes are drawn, in order of appearance …
Fiona Macleod,
From the Hills of Dream: Threnodies, Songs and Other Poems,
Portland (Maine), Thomas B. Mosher, 1901, p. 85.
Giacomo Leopardi,
«Discorso di un Italiano intorno alla poesia romantica»,
in Tutte le opere, a cura di Walter Binni ed Enrico Ghidetti,
2 vols., Firenze, Sansoni, 1976, Vol. I, p.919.
Fiona Macleod,
From the Hills of Dream: Threnodies, Songs and Other Poems,
Portland (Maine), Thomas B. Mosher, 1901, p. 85.
Giacomo Leopardi,
«Discorso di un Italiano intorno alla poesia romantica»,
in Tutte le opere, a cura di Walter Binni ed Enrico Ghidetti,
2 vols., Firenze, Sansoni, 1976, Vol. I, p.919.