In the poem "Aquarius," the movement is the kind we can feel: the “sea’s breath," the “reversed” image in the mirror’s lens, turning “towards sleep." These are all movements that we can experience while we, as humans, are still. Think of standing in an ocean or river while its currents move and pull you, or of the strange feeling you get when you are surprised by your reflection in a shop window. These are movements which affect us but which we cannot control, only experience. The title could be a reference to the ways that the movement of stars and constellations have been thought by many cultures to affect human experience.
In "Radiance," we can see movement happening in the “weather we move in," meaning the way that we interpret and experience the world and the paths that our lives take. Malouf mentions an animal totem, an unknown familiar, and an angel. These could refer to the way that external factors affect our path and how humans like to see events as destiny or part of a greater plan. As Malouf says, for some it is a “nudge . . . of circumstance," small changes that seem random but purposeful; for others it is the appearance of a shadow falling across their path at noon, unexpected obstacles that appear suddenly; and for others still it is a “wound” or a “gift” which can be one and the same, a challenge that changes the path of our lives takes but that we accept as a positive. The title, and the opening stanza, could be an allusion to moving toward the light; “come to it, serenely” a reference to accepting death and the way you have moved through life.
Saturday, March 8, 2014
How does Malouf use the motif of movement in his poems "Radiance" and "Aquarius"?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
What is the theme of the chapter Lead?
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
The statement "Development policy needs to be about poor people, not just poor countries," carries a lot of baggage. Let's dis...
-
"Mistaken Identity" is an amusing anecdote recounted by the famous author Mark Twain about an experience he once had while traveli...
-
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
De Gouges's Declaration of the Rights of Woman was enormously influential. We can see its influences on early English feminist Mary Woll...
-
As if Hamlet were not obsessed enough with death, his uncovering of the skull of Yorick, the court jester from his youth, really sets him of...
-
In both "Volar" and "A Wall of Fire Rising," the characters are impacted by their environments, and this is indeed refle...
No comments:
Post a Comment