Over the next week, Concert Choir and Madrigal Singers will be considering the meaning of the text to Morten Lauridsen's Lament for Pasiphaë. Understanding the poem by Robert Graves will require some knowledge of the poet himself, as well as the references the poem makes to classical mythology.
(1) Please have a look at this short article about Robert Graves:
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/193
Consider Grave's pre-occupation with mythology and his work in translating works from ancient
Rome and Greece.
(2) Who is Pasiphaë?
http://www.theoi.com/Titan/Pasiphae.html
(3) What do you think this poem is about? Here are some questions to guide you. Please craft a response that takes some of these questions into account.
What is a lament?
Consider the legend of Pasiphaë. How does this poem relate to her story?
Are there any places in the poem where Graves' language seems to reference mythology?
Who or what is the "dying sun"? What possible meanings, aside from mythology, could this "dying sun" take on?
What is with the "eye dazzed with tears"?
"You, sun, and I all afternoon have laboured beneath a dewless and oppressive cloud" -- what?
To what might the "night without a moon" refer?
What is the reference to "Spring's cuckoo"?
(4) Finally, "Lament" is the first movement from a cycle of choral songs entitled "Mid-Winter Songs". I have included the text of the other movements below for your consideration. It is interesting to note the points of connection from poem to poem. Perhaps some of the other texts might help you to shed some light on the meaning of "Lament".
I. Lament for Pasiphaë
Dying sun, shine warm a little longer!
My eye, dazzled with tears, shall dazzle yours,
Conjuring you to shine and not to move.
You, sun, and I all afternoon have laboured
Beneath a dewless and oppressive cloud--
a fleece now gilded with our commen grief
That this must be a night without a moon.
Dying sun, shine warm a little longer!
Faithless she was not: she was very woman,
Smiling with dire impartiality,
Sovereign, with heart unmatched, adored of men,
Until Spring's cuckoo with bedraggled plumes
Tempted her pity and her truth betrayed.
Then she who shone for all resigned her being,
And this must be a night without a moon.
Dying sun, shine warm a little longer!
II. Like Snow
She, then, like snow in a dark night,
Fell secretly. And the world waked
With dazzling of the drowsy eye,
So that some muttered 'Too much light,'
And drew the curtains close.
Like snow, warmer than fingers feared,
And to soil friendly;
Holding the histories of the night
In yet unmelted tracks.
III. She Tells Her Loves While Half Asleep
She tells her love while half asleep,
In the dark hours,
With half-words whispered low:
As Earth stirs in her winter sleep
And puts out grass and flowers
Despite the snow,
Despite the falling snow.
IV. Mid-Winter Waking
Stirring suddenly from long hibernation
I knew myself once more a poet
Guarded by timeless prinicipalities
Against the worm of death, this hillside haunting;
And presently dared open both my eyes.
O gracious, lofty, shone against from under,
Back-of-the-mind-far clouds like towers;
And you, sudden warm airs that blow
Before the expected season of new blossom,
While sheep still gnaw at roots and lambless go--
Be witness that on waking, this mid-winter,
I foudn her hand in mine laid closely
Who hsall watch out the Spring with me.
We stared in silence all around us
But found no winter anywhere to see.
V. Intercession in Late October
How hard the year dies: no frost yet.
On drifts of yellow sand Midas reclines,
Fearless of moaning reed or sullen wave.
Firm and fragrant still the brambleberries.
On ivy-bloom butterflies wag.
Spare him a little longer, Crone,
For his clean hands and love-submissive heart.
