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Orpheus Alone ~ 1989 ~ Mark Strand Katrina Sabochick, Brian Lantz ORPHEUS MYTH DETAIL - Orpheus and his young lover, Eurydice, were frolicking through plains in central Greece when Eurydice came to meet a Satyr, who chased her into a pit of vipers, where she was bitten. By the time Orpheus had arrived to rescue her, she had already died. Mourning her death began to consume Orpheus and he eventually set out to rescue her from her wrongful death. With only his lyre, he set out to the underworld, playing his lyre to soften the hearts of Charon, Hades and Persephone to allow him to win the chance to save his dead wife. The stipulation was that he was required to return to the realm of man without looking behind him, and trusting that Eurydice would follow. Just before leaving the underworld, he mistakenly looked behind him to see his wife vanish forever. After his death, his head upon his lyre floated down a river singing songs of mourning for all to hear. POEM ANALYSIS STRUCTURE - Not a consistent or continuous structure- told almost as a story in lines rather than a lyrical poem - Three roughly equal parts describing the three elements of creation versus the Orphic hymns MEANING - First as the blossoming of light out of darkness and chaos, as Orpheus travels down to hell singing the songs that soften the hearts of hell - Second as the formation of the Earth, which no one can recall, as Orpheus’ mourning songs that echo into creation - Third as the creation of thought and consciousness, Orpheus’ death being the end of any new creation and the power of his voice SOUND AND SENSE - Senses and figurative examples o “And that was the second great poem,/Which no one recalls anymore.” § That which is being retold of Orpheus’ mourning o “And pointless labor, stunned by his voice’s cadence,/Would come to a halt.” § Hell ceasing it’s turmoil to bend to the power of Orpheus’ voice o “With his severed head rolling under the waves/… Untouched by pity, in a poem, lavish and dark,/… The future, with no voice of its own… Might mourn.” § Orpheus’ head (and therefore his musical and creative power) being lost in the waves, and with it his song and ability to create elements of the universe. - [] - [] - Page 1030 AP Lit Book - [|http://www.greekmythology.com] .