NOTES for studying WHALE SONGS IN THE AURORA BOREALIS page 4
21. Whispers in the Heavens I, II, III, IV
Synopsis: This four part poem is typically Yeatsian in theme and content as Ronda blends and contrasts the likes of actions and calls to action "a wing and a prayer" which is also the seen and the unseen, the physical and metaphysical. With the images of Greystone and the Immortal Rose we have the solid, steady love and the thorny, passionate love, the long-term with the fleeting (flighty), the weighted with the light, grounding with flight, security with insecurity, complex beauty with simple beauty. In this poem, the attributes form the embodiment of a working, loving relationship for two spiritual components - the one with heavenly perfection and purpose and the other on an earthly mission. The reader might wonder if this is a man with a spirit guide, man and his daemon, two soul mates or simply an alliance between the feminine and masculine principles of humanity. Their seeming purpose is the creation of a "child", "legacy", "secret safe to walk the earth" once it reaches maturity. Parts I, II and IV are his dialogue expressing a longing to be rejoined with her while Part III is her dialogue "slightly wider in the hip with a plentiful bosom" acknowledging the world's unreadiness to accept her "like Jesus I was misplaced", "a fertile embodiment (pregnancy) cast out of season". This is a love song of the cosmos as full spiritual unification waits for the appropriate time in order to bring about a new change within the world... a New Age... a gyre completed. There are numerous directions of thought the reader can follow in contemplating this piece.
Imagery: see Grey Stone and Immortal Rose in Notes page 1.
Lyric: unstructured rhyme, meters are not fixed. Cadence is emphasized.
22. Cuchulain's Legacy
coming soon
23. She Sings of the Immortal Wick
Synopsis: A spirit's song of praise to its creator during the phase between two physical incarnations. The spirit recognizes how much more there is to its own existence than the basic teachings of religion and that the burden of having such an understanding ("my cross") is not a heavy burden because it is now united and one with this tried, tested and true cosmic function. The spirit has become the truth and they worship their Creator as one entity; validating each other through their own continual practice of self-purging (in the "immortal wick").
Lyric: 4 quatrains in ABAB rhyme scheme.
24. The Sweet Everlasting Voices Continue
Synopsis: This poem was inspired by Yeats' poem "The Everlasting Voices". In "The Sweet Everlasting Voices Continue" Yeats is reincarnated and once again speaks to, and of, these voices but no longer holds them in contempt. He is a poet again only this time he sees that the voices' purpose is to prod him along, prompt him with images and concepts of self-expression that the world ("the lazy whore") needs to receive before it ceases to exist. There is a hint of the prophet / mage Yeats in this poem as followed between the verses; in verse 1, Yeats addresses the voices, in verse 2 and 3 he addresses the people of the world.
Lyric: 3 octets plus one post script line, predominantly ABABCDCD rhyme scheme.
25. Inscribed Within the Mage's Pregnant Head
Synopsis: In this piece Ronda uses poetic license to portray Yeats' occultic interests through his own persona and leads the reader to consider possible ramifications.
Imagery: "Thoorian" refers to his home - Thoor Ballylee. "Black garment of premature morning" infers a cloak of death before the dawning of a new day (life) yet, through its play on words (morning / mourning) it also leads the reader to wonder if he's really dead or not considering that the mourning is premature. "The woman of the entranced castle's speaking" refers to his wife George, who was apparently able to channel spirits and his daemon. It was through this communication that Yeats conceived "A Vision" and developed his concept of gyres. "The ancient eager's tongue" refers to the words of the channelled spirit. The cloak and staff are symbols of the magician (Yeats being considered one) and the double-edged dagger symbolizes knowledge (perhaps from the ancient eager's tongue - the two-edged sword). "The Golden Dawn" was a hermetic order he was a prominent member of.
Lyric: 4 quatrains of varying meter in ABAB rhyme scheme.
26. I am I
Synopsis: Inspired by Yeats' "Spiritual Songs XI; A Needle's Eye", "I am I" is the reply of a spirit that has been evolved by Yeats through his own visions. It illustrates the power of human thought to create things within the cosmos. In this instance, the spirit has a feminine principle and is, perhaps, the embodiment of his ideal woman. Her incarnation has come through a bloodline connected to his ("impaled by consanguinity") and infers some sort of self-obsession. It also alludes to the labour of evoking her when combined with "toil and sweat" (blood, sweat and tears... the labour of pregnancy) - the reader is left to decide if only one or both principles may apply. Yeats is definitely the creator: "he made the show, he wrote the play, the mage evoked her...". Throughout the first four verses, she (the spirit evoked) insists that she is herself and not him. In the final verse she says that she breathed him in the emerald sky (the sky of Ireland); in other words, he moved inside of her and "his whale song gained further flight immersed in borealic light" (as he continued his own evolution - see Whale Songs synopsis in Notes pg3) "filtered by the needle's eye" (authorized by a cosmic plan). In this final light "I am I" takes on a new meaning as it ceases to be understood as a new entity and switches to being Yeats returned - reincarnated through a magical initiative of his own making. His masculine principle of the previous lifetime is absorbed by the new feminine principle and united. The entire poem is meant to challenge the reader to consider what is possible through humanity's creative nature within the cosmos.
27. Colonnade of Bones
Synopsis: Inspired by terminology in Yeats' poem "Demon and Beast" yet not along the same topic, this poem picks up the question "What had the Caesars but their thrones?" The narrator looks at visions of history through the eye of an infant whose cosmic knowledge has not yet been harnessed and subdued by its physical environment. In this instance, the reincarnated infant identifies as Yeats through the third verse reference "the horseman never passed them by, nor I, in my immortal sky", thus admitting to having been unable to avoid destiny. However, in bleeding "beyond the demons" he understands the need for the purging received between lifetimes. With a new view, in verse four, he concedes that history's heroes and heroines were no greater or lesser than any other (reflected in the conclusion of "an aging woman with her toil-stained shawl"). On an alternate level, all of these personae were inspirations for Yeats throughout his poetic life yet, in the end, all that he acknowledges having gained at life's end was an aging friendship with his lifelong love Maud Gonne (symbolized by the Moab Ruth) and himself styled as Boaz.
Lyric: 4 dectets (10-line verses) in rhyming couplets.
28. O Cruel Rose, Remember This
coming soon
CONTINUE
