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The Island of the Dead
(After Böcklin, Reger and Rachmaninov)
Look! There it is! The island of the dead,
So full of cypresses, they spill over the edge
And even in full sun their inky shadows
Cloud the water.
Look: there it is, and every stroke of the oars
Bringing it nearer; you can see the beach,
A narrow fringe of white sand, and the steps,
Just wide enough for two abreast and a coffin,
Winding up into the darkness of the cypresses.
No sense of hills or valleys, just the cypresses
And the path, disappearing. Look. There it is.
The island of the dead. And every stroke of the oars
Brings you nearer.
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Comment by: - 2006-07-07 10:39
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This is a wonderful painting in that dark tradition of the romantic and the sublime. What stays with me is the way the standing figure in the boat is framed by the dark cypresses, which also mirror his shape. I liked your openeing line with its exclamation marks conveying a sense of wonder and excitement and the repetition of 'look' throughout the poem. It reminded me of the poem that begins: 'Look stranger, on this island now, the leaping light for your delight discover...' I can't remember who wrote it.
Just one point - I wondered if the tone of excited discovery is not contradictory to the forbidding nature of the island of the dead. Perhaps you were aiming for that juxtaposition of ideas? |
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| Actually, it's just what it says: a poem about the painting by Böcklin which inspired the pieces of music by Rachmaninov and Reger. The Rachmaninov is really scary, you can hear the rowers pulling so strongly. And the place really exists. It's the cemetery island for Venice, in the Lagoon, and Stravinsky's buried on it, and I've actually sailed past it... |
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| Is this a poetic way of saying we start dying the day we are born? |
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