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“The Phoenix Again” -May Sarton

 **__ The Phoenix: __**

• Archetypally the phoenix is supposed to symbolize immortality and the renewal of life and desire. • The Phoenix has also been known the reference the death and rebirth (and the leisure of controlling life) of Christ. • As the poem progresses, Sarton changes the universal definition of a phoenix to a personal meaning reflecting the loneliness and sorrow and grief of the mythical bird. • “The wings are pushing out” Line 17 Is part of Indian myth and the last step before the Phoenix’s fire consumes its host.


 * __ Poem: __**

• There is no real metre structure to the poem (iambic/trochaic) although it does take the form of a trimeter poem. • Although the rhyme scheme is ABAB for all six quatrains and I want to say that it is so so as not to detract from the true meaning of the poem, I would truly like to say that Sarton does this to show the repetition and expectancy of the Phoenix’s rebirth. • Even though “The Phoenix Again” has no set metre structure it has a series of heavy stress syllables that illicit the frequency of the phoenix’s own flames. At the start of the poem, there are – roughly – two heavy stresses per line. The reader may think that the bird would die on the 17th line, but that is still just a simple preparation; it is more powerful and meaningful that the phoenix completes its immortal cycle by the last quatrain, specifically the last line: “The phoenix does not die.”


 * __ Evolution of Myth: __**

• Obviously the phoenix normally symbolizes rebirth, but Sarton takes a new spin as you understand the endlessly lonely cycle that it needs to repeat. • “Love wove with deathly fire” & “Forgetting all desire” Love is that of God and fire symbolizes his “gift” of immortality and forgetting desire is one step towards death where you supposedly want nothing and simply wait for death to come; more significant for the phoenix. • Lines 6-7 in Stanza 2 (& Stanza 3) create a sympathy towards the bird because she has no control over the process and the pain of being consumed by fire never changes. • Shift between Stanza 2 and 3 is a change between tense and in talking about the bird in its past and undoubted future and the actual cycle in which the bird is reborn from its ashes. • Stanza 4: No matter what, the phoenix is alone and can’t hold onto anything because it’ll always die and live on with the sands of time. With death always comes a self-doubt that there’s something you should’ve/could’ve/would’ve done and with that, the phoenix knows that it can’t hold out on rebirth, so she pushes out her wings almost to embrace the short-lived death. • Basically throughout the poem, Sarton plays on the reader’s knowledge of the immortality and knowledge of the bestiary of the phoenix and elaborates facts with an emotion. She makes you feel pity for the once revered/coveted bird.

__**External Sources: **__

Wikipedia: [] ) Aberdeen Bestiary: [] Ashmole Bestiary: [] 