CLASSIC POETRY: "Bavarian Gentians" By D.H. Lawrence

Not every man has Bavarian gentians in his house

In soft September, at slow, sad Michaelmas.

.

Bavarian gentians, big and dark, only dark

darkening the day-time, torch-like with the smoking blueness of Pluto's gloom,

ribbed and torch-like, with their blaze of darkness spread blue

.

down flattening into points, flattened under the sweep of white day

torch-flower of the blue-smoking darkness, Pluto's dark-blue daze,

black lamps from the halls of Dio, burning dark blue,

giving off darkness,  blue darkness, as Demeter's pale lamps give off light,

lead me then, lead me the way.

.

Reach me a gentian, give me a torch!

let me guide myself with the blue, forked torch of this flower,

down the darker and darker stairs, where blue is darkened on blueness,

even where Persephone goes, just now, from the frosted September,

to the sightless realm where darkness is awake upon the dark,

and Persephone herself is but a voice

or a darkness invisible unfolded in the deeper dark

.

of the arms Plutonic, and pierced with the passion of dense gloom,

among the splendor of torches of darkness, shedding darkness on the lost bride and her groom.

.

.

x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x

+ x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x +

.

.

D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930)

.

.

x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x

.

.

A scattering of thoughts:

This rich poem incorporates both Jusaeo-Christian and pagan legends relating to Hell.

.

.

For some Christians: today, Sept. 29, is Michaelmas (or the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels), dedicated to the Archangel Michael.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam all honor this personage. According to tradition, Michael led God's angelic forces against Satan (whose name, ironically, was originally Lucifer or "Light Bearer") and the other rebel angels.

Certain versions of the story specify that it was on Sept. 29 that St. Michael pitched Satan out of Heaven into Hell.

.

John Milton's famous description of Hell in the epic poem Paradise Lost, "No light, but rather darkness visible..."is specifically recalled by Lawrence: "black lamps...giving off darkness....darkness invisible..."

.

x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x

.

.

.

.

.

In the classical tradition: most will remember, at this time of year the Greek vegetation goddess Persephone(a.k.a. Roman goddess Proserpina) descends to the underworld. There she lives for a few months with her husband Hades (the Roman Pluto). Nothing grows in her absence. Still, her reliable pattern of descent and re-emergence assures that spring will come.

.

.

In its well-known form, Persephone’s history looks like just one more of the rape-by-deity narratives so  common in Greek and Roman myth.

.

Persephone has already refused several suitors. She declines Hades in his turn.

Hades abducts her.

This time, however, female power will prevail -- at least in part.

Persephone's mother Demeter (Ceres, in Rome) goes on strike.

As the senior vegetation goddess, Demeter withholds her life-giving power from the entire Earth until Hades (and his complicit brother, Zeus) agree to let Persephone go.  

.

.

Persephone might have been entirely free, according to myth, but for one error. In the underworld, she consumed a few seeds from a pomegranate, symbolic fruit of that realm (and powerful female emblem).

By a standing rule of the (female) Fates, Persephone by this is magically bound in the underworld for part of the year, one month for each seed.

.

.

.

(This resonates with certain Celtic tales, where a mortal entering Faerie must refrain from food and drink, or be trapped there forever. Marriage-by-capture survived into historical times as a danger to heiresses, at least in Britain.) 

I haven’t found "Dio" in classical dictionaries, but Lawrence may have meant Dīs Pater, sometimes simply called Dīs -- another Roman god associated with minerals, the underworld, the dead and Proserpine (therefore a natural alternate name for Pluto).

The idea of Persephone as"but a voice,"could have been suggested by the Greek noun "phona" (pronounced with long o and a), meaning "sound." (This, however, is probably not the true history of her name.)

x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x

.

“Not every man....”

Persephone descends; but few would follow.  

Among those who, myth relates, have descended and returned: Orpheus -- the legendary poet, musician and prophet.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

For the Greeks, Orpheus was a founder and prophet of the so-called “Orphic" mysteries....Poets….said that Orpheus'music and singing could charm the birds, fish and wild beasts, coax the trees and rocks into dance, and divert the course of rivers. Orpheus was one of the handful of Greek heroes to visit the Underworld and return; his music and song even had power over Hades….

--Wikipedia

.

.

.

.

.

The poet must descend into the subconscious, into the unconscious, into the dark night of the soul.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x

Subterraneous mysteries:

.

It’s been suggested that at least some rape-by-deity myths symbolize prehistoric events when male gods took over a number of ancient goddess shrines around the Mediterranean.

Even in the male-supremacist classical era, however, Demeter and Persephone remained the primary figures in the secret Eleusinian Mysteries, whose theme was Persephone's descent and return.

.

Mystery religions offered private initiation experiences that endowed participants with special knowledge and consolation concerning death and what comes after.

The "Greater Mysteries" at Eleusis were enacted at just about this time of year and lasted for 10 days.

Little is known of their content. It seems that at one critical point, initiates were shown an ear of wheat; other objects and symbols are obscure.

Pre-Christian religions featured many dying and rising Gods.

Here we have a dying and rising goddess; instead of the Father and Son, a Mother and Daughter.

.

.

.

.

At least one other ancient initiation religion that may have featured a descent to Hades was known as the Orphic or Dionysian Mysteries, said to have been invented by Orpheus.

(And tangentially, but fascinating: according to one hypothesis, visitors at an oracle of the dead near Baiae on the West Coast of the Italian peninsula may have received an actual tour of "Hell" as part of their experience; controversial, but worth a read.)

.x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x

More poetry on DKos

Another equinoctial poem (from Sept. 20): CLASSIC POETRY: "Light At Equinox" By Léonie Adams

Another D.H. Lawrence evocation on ancient religion, see Angmar's May 5 diary on Lawrence's poem, "The Snake."

.

CLASSIC POETRY GROUP.

*************

Beyond DKos:

flowersforsocrates.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.