»
Archives
»
Critical Analysis #1
»
The Sacred Image
| Critical Analysis #1 |
|
The Sacred Image |
|
|
Vincent Spaulding Member
since 2000-01-16
Posts 59 |
The Sacred Image Flog the fool in public and foolishness will cease. Wisdom administered blow by blow. Bloody, glanced he up and saw a glistering creature. "He looks like me," he cried, "but bears the sacred image." "Little one," he said to me, "spread this sawdust on the sand." I did, and dust transformed of sudden into giant speckled rats. "Now pour this vial upon the dust." The liquid poured arose in oily glow. "Now wave your hands above the whole." So done, it burst into many terrible flapping birds that pecked the rats and gobbled them quite alive. "Did the rodents suffer much?" I asked, "or was it all illusion?" "They suffered much, and rightly, " he replied. I commended then his sorcery. "Not so," said he; "it's science." The brutes couldn't comprehend the joke at which the old man, who saw the glistering creature, laughed. "He looks like me," he cried, "but bears the sacred image of dignity." And suddenly immortal, he died. |
||
| © Copyright 2000 Vincent Spaulding - All Rights Reserved | |||
|
jenni Member
since 1999-09-11
Posts 478Washington D.C. |
zzzzzoooooooooooooooom something just flew over my head.  jenni |
||
|
Hawk183 Member
since 1999-12-24
Posts 130 |
In a way (albeit a very small way) this reminds me of the "witch" scene from Monty Python and The Holy Grail...I think I get this one, but I'm not too sure. I would be interested to hear your meaning. I really like the scene that I see in my head when I read this...why are the birds "terrible?" Hawk |
||
|
Vincent Spaulding Member
since 2000-01-16
Posts 59 |
Jenni, Thank you for your honesty. I suppose I should have called my poem "Vincent's Revenge," since I myself understand few of the poems I read. Hawk, I love Monty Python. I don't want to give away my "science" yet. Suffice to say that my poem contains two scenes. The first one split up by the second stanza. My original poem had another stanza between the second and third, which read: "These are rather quite tasty grapes," I remarked. "Tasty grapes?" he chuckled. "Is this then the feast that poor people eat?" But I left that stanza out, lest it make my poem difficult to understand. Regarding "terrible birds," I suppose that that is a redundancy, since all birds are fearsome. |
||
|
Hawk183 Member
since 1999-12-24
Posts 130 |
So true about the birds Vincent! I minored in Ornithology(don't tell anyone ) and I have seen my share of the fearsome...Hawk |
||
|
poetry_kills Senior Member
since 1999-12-04
Posts 549new orleans |
vincent: this poem reminds me of a mixture of t.s. eliot and the princess bride... i like it (especially the last stanza) but i couldn't understand the meaning of any of it... very well written though... sincerely, jerome the boy with no corndog A savage place! as holy and enchanted As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted By woman wailing for her demon-lover! ~Coleridge |
||
|
Vincent Spaulding Member
since 2000-01-16
Posts 59 |
Please don't think this is false humility. I realize now that this is quite a poor poem. The story line is a follows. An old man is being flogged. Near death he sees his guardian angel, who looks like himself, only glistering. Such imagery was suggested to me by St. Stephen's vision of Jesus at his stoning, Acts 7, and the Christians mistaking Peter for his guardian angel, Acts 12. The middle stanza is delirium personified. I took the unique position in the poem of being a character in his delirium. Let's just call this poem an experiment that didn't work. It happens to us all. Sorry. [This message has been edited by Vincent Spaulding (edited 01-29-2000).] |
||
|
merely_a_jester Member
since 2000-01-14
Posts 67Arkansas... that's all you get |
i truely and genuinely enjoyed this piece. i did not understand it much until your explaination (and even now i'm a bit baffled, but let's not let that out), but i still liked it none-the-less it does have an unusual quality to it that is monty pythonish, though the religious undertones give it a more serious tone and i'm always a big fan of any poem that has an "alchemy" like basis... if i am putting my words into a coherent thought *hehe* just another twice angst ridden boy To Be, contents his natural desire, He asks no Angel's wing, no Seraph's fire; Alexander Pope |
||
|
warmhrt Senior Member
since 1999-12-18
Posts 1563 |
Vincent, I liked this...it intrigued me. Read it three times, but still can't quite grasp the intention. Kristine |
||
|
|
⇧ top of page ⇧ |
|
| All times are ET (US). All dates are in Year-Month-Day format. | ||
