![]() There’s a coded reference to Plath’s mother’s name, Aurelia, through the jellyfish reference in the poem, too: the taxonomical name for the moon jellyfish is Aurelia aurita. ![]() Plath uses the myth of the Gorgon Medusa (which we have written about here) as a basis for this poem which addresses some of the feelings Plath had about her mother. before her, though utilising a more direct, Confessional mode, Plath draws on the power of mythical figures as a way of exploring her own complicated emotions towards certain people and subjects. Much of Plath’s best work was written in the months leading up to her death in early 1963, and ‘Medusa’ is a prime example. This poem was only indirectly inspired by mythology: it was inspired more directly by a painting, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, attributed to Brueghel the Elder.īut the myth of Icarus, who famously flew too close to the sun and drowned when the wax in his wings melted, is a key detail in this poem which is, as the title and first line make clear, about the ways in which artists have depicted suffering in their work. Scroll down the link provided above to find the poem. One of the most exhilarating things about this poem is how Empson weaves together not only the two Sphinxes but also many other frames of reference. In this poem, Empson addresses the two Sphinxes: the stone statue in Egypt and the mythical beast that posed Oedipus the famous riddle (we have discussed this riddle, as well as a less famous follow-up riddle, here). His poetry is challenging, metaphysical, and sometimes verging on the opaque, but study of it is both rewarding and stimulating. Eliot, William Empson (1906-84) was, like Eliot, one of the great poet-critics of the twentieth century. William Empson, ‘ Four Legs, Two Legs, Three Legs’.Īlthough not as famous as T. ![]() But many older mythic figures lurk behind this important work of modernist poetry, including Tiresias, the seer from numerous Greek myths and works of literature, who we find, here, transported to modern-day London and watching a young typist and her boyfriend in bed together …Ħ.
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