{"id":930,"date":"2018-12-19T09:00:41","date_gmt":"2018-12-19T08:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/?p=930"},"modified":"2018-12-16T21:37:20","modified_gmt":"2018-12-16T20:37:20","slug":"a-song-from-solitude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/2018\/12\/a-song-from-solitude\/","title":{"rendered":"A Song from Solitude"},"content":{"rendered":"

Image: \u00a9 Olena Danylovych<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Author: <\/strong>Olena Danylovych<\/p>\n

Foreword, ‘A Song from Solitude’
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

This poem was inspired by Byron\u2019s \u2018Childe Harold\u2019s Pilgrimage,\u2019 and also follows hero on their travels\u00a0as they undergo an introspective journey. Unlike Childe Harold, the protagonist of \u2018A Song from Solitude\u2019 is a woman, Diana, who finds herself alone after leaving her homeland and consequently being unable to relate to others. Just like Childe Harold is based on Byron\u2019s own personal history, so Diana\u2019s beginnings are reminiscent of my own, though they have been exaggerated for poetic effect.<\/p>\n

Though there are many similarities between \u2018Childe Harold\u2019s Pilgrimage\u2019 and \u2018A Song from Solitude,\u2019 they are ultimately two very different poems. I have relied on the same poetic structure, following the introspective journey of our heroine as she travels through Grasmere and Chamonix, and placing some importance on the literary-historical significance of the locations, as well as on the experience of both picturesque and sublime landscapes. However, my focus rather on the interrelation between writing and social connectivity; whether having an audience inspires writing, or writing inspires an audience, I cannot say, though firmly believe that writing requires an audience (real or imagined). Therefore, writing and connectivity are necessarily linked to Diana\u2019s journey, and influenced by the landscapes she travels through.<\/p>\n

I had intended to include multiple references to the \u2018Two-Lakes Romanticism\u2019 course as a whole, though at some point the poem developed a life of its own. The most obvious connection is Diana\u2019s itinerary, as it is inspired by our trips to Grasmere and Chamonix. I had also intended for Diana to develop a more equal relation towards Nature throughout the narrative, inspired by Dorothy Wordsworth\u2019s \u2018co-presence\u2019 with her surroundings. The ethics of our relationship to Nature is something I had not given much thought to before, and was, for me, an important take-away from the course. However, this point was not developed in depth in the poem. Overall, the poem is inspired by texts we studied, the trips we went on, and what I learned throughout.<\/p>\n

A Song from Solitude<\/em><\/p>\n

1
\nOh, Muse, who has inspired many a verse,
\nWho flies to poets worthier than I,
\nYet one who falters, as if under a curse,
\nWhen paper, with my pen, I deign to dignify.
\nYet come this once, and glean that inward eye,
\nHelp put words the soundless song in me,
\nThrough which one can but little comfort spy,
\nAnd though it of a modest value be,
\nIt may yet find its place, not vanish into history.<\/p>\n

2
\nSome time ago, in lands not far from here,
\nThere was a youth who, spurning company,
\nWould seek the solitude of woods and meres,
\nAvoiding peers, choosing a lonesome destiny.
\nFor her \u2013 for yes, our fable\u2019s heroine\u2019s a she \u2013
\nThere was no home, no one to call a friend;
\nWhen as a babe she left her mother-country,
\nShe launched into her journey without end,
\nAnd thus she spent her life in other people\u2019s land.<\/p>\n

3
\nDiana she was called, though called by few,
\nFor only loneliness did her those travels bring;
\nAlways a recluse, forever passing through,
\nWithout capacity for mutual understanding.
\nIt was not hatred of her fellow beings
\nThat lead her to deny those clay-cold bonds;
\nNor was her solitude particularly freeing,
\nNor did the landscapes to her thoughts respond.
\nDeprived of connectivity, she roamed a vagabond<\/p>\n

4
\nAnd so it chanced, one day like any other,
\nWhen lounging on a bank in sad reflection,
\nDiana, watching folk and flowers stir,
\nWas struck with a perceptive apprehension \u2013
\nThe sudden answer to that tireless question
\nThat oft had danced upon her silent lip.
\nTo write, she thought, would bring about redemption;
\nProviding meaning to that endless drip
\nOf life that would not stop for her, nor she for it.<\/p>\n

5
\nTo Grasmere, then, she followed in the steps
\nOf those who came before and left their legacy.
\nIn truth, those hills a valued treasure kept:
\nThere was a William, and with him Dorothy,
\nWho walked those paths, forever spilling poetry;
\nOne was the fount, the other \u2013 dutiful receptacle,
\nProducing art through mutual reciprocity.
\nAnd while this practice rendered many sceptical,
\nThere\u2019s something to be said for love and writing, above all.<\/p>\n

6
\nYet, while their words were powerful and clear,
\nNot even they could truthfully communicate
\nThe beauty and the wonder of Grasmere \u2013
\nThose rolling hills, those trails, which all create
\nImpressions of protection. Diana stood within
\nThat luscious nest, surveying Heaven\u2019s gate,
\nWhich was the closest to divinity she\u2019d been,
\nA place of peaceful reign, of love incarnate;
\nEnraptured and transfixed, she fell to earth prostrate.<\/p>\n

7
\nYet she was not alone! Though from her infancy
\nShe had not had affinity with any other,
\nShe now was found, treated with empathy.
\nA kindly soul, a shepherd, wanderer, brother,
\nWas crossing those soft hills and saw her falter,
\nAnd though he used to walk a lonely way,
\nHe now was found, no more alone than her.
\nTogether they walked home in fading day,
\nIn such a happiness, that none can truly say.<\/p>\n

8
\nYet Diane\u2019s journey had only just begun,
\nFor she still wished to write a worthy tale,
\nA mighty pilgrimage, a story to be sung.
\nThere were still things to see, and mounts to scale;
\nFerocious landscapes, crags, and plunging vales.
\nShe would not stay, not for the world, nor him
\nWho ere had saved her. She left the dales
\nThat gave her many comforts, on a whim,
\nAnd for the Alps she set, leaving her sole companion.<\/p>\n

9
\nFar in the distance she had seen those peaks,
\nThat now did tower and press upon her head,
\nAnd yet, resolved, she climbed to Chamonix,
\nObsessed with all the histories it held;
\nHere Wordsworth came, and Mary Shelley tread,
\nAll equally impressed by palaces of stone,
\nThe icy pinnacles that to the Heavens spread
\nAnd wither every heart, and chill each bone.
\nAgainst those heights, who could not help but feel alone?<\/p>\n

10
\nWhile Grasmere\u2019s dales with soft embrace surround you,
\nThe alpine tracks compel you to the top,
\nWhere nothing lives, and solitude reigns true;
\nOnly yourself, the emptiness, the drop \u2013
\nEnough for any mortal to give up.
\nAll Nature\u2019s appalling magnificence
\nDid not expand her soul \u2013 near made it stop.
\nAware of her small insignificance,
\nDiane descended, yearning for mortal, mutual existence.<\/p>\n

11
\nSo she, who never knew a friend or home,
\nWho used to wander lonely, land to land,
\nAnd destined felt to cross the world alone,
\nHad found someplace to make her final stand.
\nShe went at once to those green, Northern lands,
\nThose gentle views, and enveloping hills
\nWhere there awaited that lone, patient friend.
\nAscending Alps had brought her little thrill,
\nWhile great, warmth and connection are far greater still.<\/p>\n

12
\nIt may not be a shock to some, that I
\nAm she, Diane, the self-same wanderer,
\nThe one who travelled wide, and low, and high,
\nAnd after seeking danger and adventure,
\nHas deemed relation as the foremost treasure.
\nI shall not climb those isolating summits,
\nWhen friends and gentle hills inspire me more;
\nTo Grasmere\u2019s welcome hug I now submit,
\nWhich, with this song, I hope never to forget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image: \u00a9 Olena Danylovych Author: Olena Danylovych Foreword, ‘A Song from Solitude’ This poem was inspired by Byron\u2019s \u2018Childe Harold\u2019s Pilgrimage,\u2019 and also follows hero on their travels\u00a0as they undergo an introspective journey. Unlike Childe Harold, the protagonist of \u2018A Song from Solitude\u2019 is a woman, Diana, who finds herself alone after leaving her homeland […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001260,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[36],"class_list":{"0":"post-930","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-winter18","7":"tag-poetry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001260"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}