In the Shade of Achilles’ Shield
Part 4 of the Trojan Chronicles – Achilles reflects on Helen and the love of his life.
“Fresh rain
a welcome spray to dampen the day –
sitting in The Coleherne,
on The Old Brompton Road,
watching the sunset traffic flows,
when he comes out framed
against the steep entrance to The Mansion Block,
thigh ripped shorts,
t-shirt plated to his chiselled chest,
stands, looks,
and I begin to anticipate his kiss.”
It was written; Troy would be my death
and much would then be said and seeded
into the parasitic shibboleth,
making sure truth and reality receded.
It is her-story, and hers alone,
the likes of me purely bystanders
lifted by her grace, each given a throne,
and honoured to be her defenders.
She emerged crispered for greatness,
skies, seas mirrored to reflect her face,
beauty untouched by the bitchiness
of brushes shading her with disgrace.
I, too, have felt that repellent paint,
applauded and ridiculed in turn,
hero now, next a cross-dressing taint.
Let these trolling commentators burn;
I am who I am, a man divine,
In love and loved by an other;
I grieved when he died before his time
suited in my armour, which proved no harbour
from the cuts of the Trojan swords.
I carried him back into my tent,
lay with him until my grief was spent,
and then I hacked out Hector’s cords,
dragged his corpse around the citadel,
cursing each, all to the deepest hell.
Patroclus was more than a fellow warrior;
I did not mourn him as a brother,
I mourned him as one mourns a lover;
the world no right to judge me further.
“Seated on our balcony beneath Achilles’ shield
we watch the sunset slowly fade
sinking in the glassed front stained glass of The Troubadour,
and we hear from within the bronze
rising his arrested spirit sing
of the need to be true in our skin,
remind us we are all God descended,
unique, each a myth in the making.”
You seem to have started a trend, B. Lot of history about today. 😉
Excellent poetry, but I am not wise enough to comment on the contents.
G, I didn’t reply directly to your comment; got tangled in the replies with Nic! Thank you for reading, and as far as wisdom goes, there are times when the enjoyment of the word flow is much more important than any implied or explicit meaning.
a passionate write learned a few words here, yes the rhapsodies can really inspire and to be honest there hasn’t been a genius that has not heard of them or read them, that’s a common platform, these big poems are qualified to become the OS of human thought (some Greeks believe Homer was punished because he spilled the beans and revealed too much). and if Guaj says that Tolkien’s invented mythology is what could shape perhaps his thought after reading Tolkien’s work, maybe he should think again, Tolkien was shaped already.
Did I say that? I wasn’t aware my thoughts have been shaped. If they have it’s unlikely to be fantasy, be it Tolkien or Homer. The events within my personal life have done a very thorough job of that.
PS from what I’ve read of Tolkien’s early work, it was very influenced by his religion (God and Lucifer) and that most certainly had no effect on my thoughts (apart maybe disappointment).
we should be suspicious of even the thought behind the thought, the writer behind the writer, the husband or wife behind our spouses. there is always something alien and concealed throughout the spectrum of life. some of us feel yonderly most of the time because of that.lots of things happen in the field of our unawareness dear Guaj. and even a comma can trigger us, the role of pausing and hesitating to continue in speech has a specific purpose. Tolkien and ancient Greek mythology just google it and read the results.
Tolkien’s fantasies interested me. Douglas Adam’s Fantasies interested me. Greek fantasy doesn’t. Horror or horrors!
I guess that makes me a dismissive ignoramus in many people’s eyes. So be it.
I like vanilla ice cream, but I don’t like strawberry ice cream 🙂
yes, I also have negative predisposition towards indian mythology for some reason but I know that most of the writers and poets I like have no such thing and read it extensively. that’s what I’m saying.
I am more of a cheesecake person, myself. I had one the other day in the Guildford Insitute, the cafe offering an extensive veggie and vegan choice. For dessert the chef, Ian, brought out this magnificent cheesecake, and as i tasted it he watched me, my daughter and wife watched me, and i tell you if there is a version of heaven on earth, that moment was pretty close to it. I told Ian that this was worthy of an epic poem, which is now in the making…..
since we talk about mythology and it’s a word you all use, I’m the Greek among you and it is natural to try and explain what it’s all about because I know the language/the code as a native speaker. the word mythos in greek is an anagram, μυθος, θυμός. thymos is most commonly used to describe anger, but the root the ancient one of this word is the soul the breath of life and of course emotion. mythology is psychology and no wonder Carl Jung for example was so interested in Bardo Thodol’s mythology. These are not fantasies, but yes… Read more »
IYP, there are certainly people on this site with the imagination to expand beyond the originals and create beauty with their art – and there are 2 on this thread, and I am not including myself in that select group.
yes but what if strawberry ice cream was white like vanilla ice cream and vanilla was coloured pink… how would that affect you? and where would you be where would anyone be without these qualities irrespective of how negative or positive they are in our opinion? who or what defined the end result of our individual perception of our senses and is this the path that leads to who we are? the bottom line is to search until we reach the unaffected part of our identity and claim it by becoming aware of it.
You are so right, IYP. But my question is how would we recognise that “unaffected part of our identity”? The language we use is not our own so we cannot say that what we see is not coloured by others.
My existing blogs are all private and I don’t know if I will repost Depressurized again, since I have expressed it with adequate lucidity in this prose poem here is my reply to your question about the unaffected part: the distance that separated me from you was bigger than the hug God could give the world. I have reached the level beyond levels, emptiness asphyxiated me with its abundant freedom from everything. all was inside me and I was inside all. I couldn’t see hear smell sense any trace of you ……. and that’s how my limits expanded or should… Read more »
If strawberry ice cream had always been white and vanilla pink then it would make no difference to me. Blind people can make that preference without as sense of colour as they would if they read Tolkien and the Greek classics in brail. If the colours were reversed halfway through my life I would be suspicious until I tasted them and preferred the pink vanilla. If I was fluent in French for example perfectly translated versions of Tolkien and Greek writings would not affect my preferences. However, the nuances of the two languages may give a different perception, in the… Read more »
yes, but there is a but, being clear enough to be adamantly certain of one’s preferences, the neutrality needed to reach such a permanent conclusion should not be lost in the process of the final evaluation. a neutrality that should not be categorized as tolerance or intolerance and should be devoid of all qualities. then it becomes a choice of free will to hate one flavor and love another irrespective of ‘you love what I hate’ – because it is very often a choice defined by other antipathies tolerated or not around us which have nothing to do with the… Read more »
Dear Guaj, you said
Leaves me cold to be honest
Give me Tolkien’s version of science fiction any day
if this mythology leaves you cold (Roman Greek) and you are fond of Tolkien’s that’s your preference and you have every right to love like etc what you find pleasing and rewarding.
but whenever we find something pleasing or rewarding whenever we are fond of something, we have been transformed by it, we have been shaped. You didn’t say that. I just searched the comment that made me say what I said. If I misunderstood your words please accept my apologies.
Hello Nic Yes I did say that but I also joked you would kill me if you read this. As a Greek person you must be very proud of being blessed with the mythology that has influenced the thinking of European (and beyond) people for centuries and quite rightly so. Not to mention some great philosophers and thinkers. To say it leaves me cold is a little unkind and I’m sorry for saying it that way. On further thought I would better have said the snobbery around showing off the knowledge of Greek mythology leaves me cold and I guess… Read more »
the title is very telling, in the shade of Achilles shield, in the shade, what creates the spectrum of human experience, that shield was not ordinary, it depicts normal life in peace time and life as a whole for human purposes for mortals. so a man who’s the owner of this shield retaliates, an Odyssey will begin after this collective Vendetta ends, I could go on and on and on.
IYP, I chose the title after much deliberation. I wanted to soften the war and warrior connotations associated with Achilles, and present a softer side, the human side and to be able to extend the metaphor of the shield into the present where it provides shelter and comfort.
Achilles is an anti-hero, I always hated his guts. I was glad when Odysseus found a way to conquer Troy, I suggest you to go find any studies especially by Greeks or non europeans regarding these epopees. There could by Japanese studies too, some over there know it by heart in ancient Greek.
maybe you could read another poet’s poem here on uka and perhaps some comments
https://ukauthors.com/2019/01/27/uproot-the-dead/
IYP, I am reading this magnificent work of yours and will comment once I have digested the complex messaging.
Bhi, if I may be excused for butting in, I’d like to point out that the poem in question is not by IYP but by someone called Ross. He has put a link to his blog but it seems that only invited readers can read it. Go figure!
Luigi,
Thank you for correcting me; I was so engrossed in the reading, and I had noticed that it had edits by IYP and assumed our sublime poetess was part of the authorship.
Apart from the elegant and masterful verse, I still like the juxtaposition between the modern and the ancient Iliad; this is becoming most engrossing – and more to come?
Dougie
D, I had planned for just the 4 poems, but there is still a gap which needs filling, and I am working on that. Thanks for the encouraging feedback.
Once again I enjoyed another part of your Chronicles. On top of that, I have enjoyed reading the comments that precede mine. I was fascinated by Greek ‘mythology’ as a child, but I must confess that it was a ‘phase’: Not one forgotten in its entirety, but no longer appearing like a desirable ice-cream (to steal from the comments below) that I no longer consume with the avarice I once did. That said, my present alternate preoccupations do not in any way detract from what you have written, the way you have written it, AND its rhymes: I don’t always… Read more »
Allen, the comments have been very illuminating, and I will be taking Nic’s suggestion to read some of the wider field of analysis. I am glad you’re enjoying this and the structure of this particular piece was meant to capture the original elegiac rendering by Homer – I do have a version by Homer Simpson as well, but that is not ready for public consumption yet. I write to better understand the subject, to challenge myself to create new perspectives and push boundaries. It’s good to have feedback such as yours. Thank you for taking the time to read and… Read more »