@3Erat illimis fons@1. "There was a clear spring" doesn't quite get it, the sense of slimelessness Ovid wanted, and let's ease up on Narcissus. Imagine how it feels to have your name twisted into a term that's never a compliment. Okay, he's good-looking, a little stuck up, but why plunge overboard on sympathy for Echo -- she got hers for hoodwinking Juno -- and before you go slapping his name on someday else, make sure you read the damn story: @3Quod petis est nusquam@1. "What you seek is nowhere": wound beyond balm. And all because Narcissus said no to someone who bitched to Nemesis. Where would we be if everybody's id could revenge itself on the unrequiting, and what about empathy for the cursed kid suddenly burning in his own blind fire? Disorders need naming, though; let's be fair, and who can blame Nacke or Ellis or Freud that the beautiful boy forgot himself fully when he fell for his face and having kissed tasteless water only then realized the terrible error. That part doesn't fit; yet it's not the fault of your local therapist who's making a living and may not wonder why the gods would change a loser bad enough to name our problems after into white flowers with a saffron center. http://www.wlu.edu/~shenano | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...EN TOUR; A SONG SEQUENCE: 4. FOR FRANCES ANN by ALBERTA BANCROFT AN ADDRESS TO THE DEITY by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD THE LOST COLORS by MARY A. BARR BEYOND THE BAR by BEATRICE B. BEEBE THOMAS GRAY by ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER BENSON |