"That the small rain down can rain?
"Christ, if my love were in my arms
"And I in my bed again!
"- Anon. (16the century)"
- is quoted at the beginning of Poul Anderson's After Doomsday, Chapter Four. Its meaning is discussed here. ("16the" is in text of my 1975 Panther Books edition.)
In the second line, "rain" seems to be both noun and verb, subject and predicate. Thus, rain rains. How is this verse relevant to the chapter? I will have to reread the chapter.
A more celebrated poem addresses the west wind. See here. And we have had occasion to refer to that more celebrated poet. See here.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And not just Shelley! JRR Tolkien has used the West Wind in some of the poems he wrote for THE LORD OF THE RINGS. The North and South winds were also sometimes invoked. But never the East Wind, because the Dark Lord's stronghold, Mordor, lay to the east of the Numenorean lands.
Sean
Paul and Sean:
Mercedes Lackey's poem "Wind's Four Quarters" matches these to the threefold goddess plus one — not just Maiden, Mother, and Crone, but with "Warrior" tucked in between Maiden and Mother. And the Western Wind invokes the Mother. The speaker is, in this stanza, praying for endurance and determination as she seeks not merely to avenge the murder of her entire clan, but to find a way of recreating it:
"Western wind, blow stark, blow strong,
Grant me arm and mind of steel
On a road both hard and long.
Mother, hear me where I kneel.
Let no weakness on my quest
Hinder me, wind of the West."
Kaor, DAVID!
A nice bit of poetry, I agree!
Sean
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