falernian:“Every word, sound and stress is placed for a purpose. The first verse describes ero
falernian:“Every word, sound and stress is placed for a purpose. The first verse describes eros rolled up in a ball beneath the lover’s heart. The words are ordered to reflect the physiology of that moment, with eros coiled dead center. A sequence of round o sounds and bunched consonants gather the tension of the lover’s desire into an audible pressure within him. The last word of the verse is a participle (elustheis) that has an epic past … In both epic contexts, a posture of abject vulnerability is assumed by a genuinely powerful person, who then proceeds to work his will on the enemy confronting him.…Line 2 encloses the lover’s eyes in mist from both sides. The poet’s consonants soften and thicken with the fog to l, m, n, and chi sounds. … Epic overtones of danger are again to be felt in the imagery for, in Homer, mist darkens a man’s eyes at the moment of death.With line 3 Eros completes his violation. One quick theft whistles the lungs straight out of the lover’s chest. Naturally, this ends the poem: with the organ of breath gone, speech is impossible.”Anne Carson, Eros the Bittersweet -- source link
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