Ulysses Coming Upon His Old Dog, ArgosUlysses
i am standing by the water's edge,
here i am,
here i am.
i am waiting for the sun to rise,
here i am,
here i am.
i am feeling the wet upon my feet,
it is not cold and I do not wish to move,
for she said she would find me here;
and here i am,
here i am.
i have been gone one thousand years
but here i am,
here i am.
paler than the dewy grass,
here i am,
here i am.
i shall leap into her arms
like a hungry sailor shipwrecked
jumps into discovered isles;
there i'll stay,
there i'll stay.
the wind has dried my naked body
where i stand,
where i stand.
more a reed than any man,
where i stand,
where i bend.
i shall go now to my palace
and seek that scarlet tunic that i love
and let it warm me thoroughly!
where we lay,
where we lay.
i am standing by the water's edge,
here i am,
here i am.
i am waiting for the sun to rise,
here i am,
here i am.
i am feeling the wet upon my feet,
it is not cold and I do not wish to move,
for she said she would find me here;
and here i am,
here i am.
i have been gone one thousand years
but here i am,
here i am.
paler than the dewy grass,
here i am,
here i am.
i shall leap into her arms
like a hungry sailor shipwrecked
jumps into discovered isles;
there i'll stay,
there i'll stay.
the wind has dried my naked body
where i stand,
where i stand.
more a reed than any man,
where i stand,
where i bend.
i shall go now to my palace
and seek that scarlet tunic that i love
and let it warm me thoroughly!
where we lay,
where we lay.
2 comments:
Oh, when the scarlet appears, it's as if the 1000 years disintegrate in the sea.
I like the repetition, as if years coming and coming.
I really felt loss, which you managed in these short lines of a big story.
It is great to have your reaction. For the most part, I have no idea how people feel when they read these. As I may have mentioned, if anyone I know - or am related to -reads them, they keep it hidden pretty well.
Thinking of images as "furniture", I wanted to express physical longing, and I had to do it in a very, very small room...
Furthermore, your comment made me think further about "scarlet" ( and I did think about that word quite a bit) and I realized even more that the entire poem has no color up to that point, and the scarlet really does change everything!- from grey, wet, cool to hot!
That made me feel very good, and quite self-satisifed, but here it is the end of another week, and there's a deadline to meet!
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