The Uses of ExileMetaphor as a Way of Knowing
Dr Robert DiNapoliwww.themelbourneliteratureseminars.com.au
The Wanderer (Old English, ca 900 CE)
Oft him anhaga are gebideð, metudes miltse, þeah þe he modcearig geond lagulade longe sceolde hreran mid hondum hrimcealde sæ, wadan wræclastas. Wyrd bið ful aræd!
Many times the lonely man waits for grace,for the Arbiter's mercy, although with careworn mindhe must brave the sea's numbing distances,stirring its ice-cold waters with his hands,treading the paths of exile. Fate is fixed!
(trans.Bob DiNapoli)
So I must keep my heart in chains as I go, always wretched,
in exile from my homeland, far from my kin,since long ago I buried my gracious lord
in the shadows beneath the soil, and then I left,winter-minded, across the writhing waves,
in wretched grief for my hall and my generous lord.I've searched both far and near for any place
where I could find someone who understood my plight,who'd comfort this friendless wretch within his hall
and treat me kindly.
The Wanderer ll. 19-29
“winter-minded” < OE wintercearig
A newborn is scarcely conscious of existing as a physically distinct entity from his or her mother.
Van GoghChild Crawling
From an early age we are obliged to negotiate a world of gravity and hard edges. Every fall and bump tells us more about ourselves.
Homeric psychology: Athena restrains Achilles from killing
Agamemnon.
[J]ust as he drew his huge blade from its sheath,down from the vaulting heavens swept Athena,the white-armed goddess Hera sped her down:Hera loved both men and cared for both alike.Rearing from behind him Pallas siezed his fiery
hair--only Achilles saw her, none of the other fighers—struck with wonder he spun around, he knew her
at once,Pallas Athena! the terrible blazing of those eyes,and his winged words went flying: “Why, why
now?Child of Zeus with the shield of thunder, why
come now?To witness the outrage Agamemnon just committed?. . .“Down from the skies I come to check your rageif only you will yield . . .And I tell you this—and I know it is the truth—one day glittering gifts will lie before you,three times over to pay for all his outrage.Hold back now. Obey us [Athena and Hera] both.”
From Homer, Iliad,Book I(ca 900 BCE)trans. Robert Fagles
All that remains of that beloved companyis a wall, marvellously high, adorned
with writhing forms; hosts of spears, weapons hungry for death, and irresistible Fate
have snatched away the warriors. And stormsnow batter these stony cliffs; falling ice
fetters the world, winter's tumult and chaos.Then darkness comes. The shadows of night grow deep;
fierce hailstorms torment men from out of the north.the realms of the earth are plunged in distress; the course
of Fate deranges the world beneath the skies.Here wealth is fleeting, and friends will pass away.
Here man will surely fail and kinship falter.Every abode on earth will stand deserted.
The Wanderer ll. 96-109 (trans. Bob DiNapoli)
Da Vinci’sVitruvian
Man
Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night: God said, "Let Newton be!" and all was light.
Alexander Pope
Newton by William Blake
An Experiment on a Bird with a Vacuum Pump
Joseph Wright of Derby
(bad time to be a bird)
Propagation of a wave ofelectromagnetic radiation
The turbineroom of theHoover Dam
Abstraction yields power,but to what ends?
ancient Hebrew ruah (wind, spirit, breath)
Greek pneuma (wind, spirit, breath)cp. modern English pneumonia, pneumatic, pneumatology
Latin spiritus (wind, spirit, breath)cp. modern English spirit, respiration, inspiration, aspiration
But soft! What light on yonder window breaks?It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Romeo and Juliet II.ii.2-3
The Seventeenth Century:You Want Metaphors? We Got Metaphors!We Got Metaphysical Conceits, Even!
from Prayer (I)
Prayer the church's banquet, angel's age, God's breath in man returning to his birth, The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earthEngine against th' Almighty, sinner's tow’r . . .
George Herbert
from Valediction: Forbidden Mourning
If they [our souls] be two, they are two so As stiff twin compasses are two ; Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show To move, but doth, if th' other do.
John Donne
Papa above!Regard a MouseO’erpwered by the Cat!Reserve within thy kingdomA “mansion” for the Rat!
Snug in seraphic CupboardsTo nibble all the day,While unsuspecting cyclesWheel solemnly away.
Emily Dickinson, ca 1859
Coat Hangers Galore
Clubbable and promiscuous, they hang
aroundgetting under your feetwhile always intending to be
helpful;
wiry and would-be athleticthey just keep falling into a tangleputting a foot
in someone else’s mouth.
Chris Wallace Crabbe
