Rückenfigur

　　by Susan Howe

　　 Iseult stands at Tintagel

　　 on the mid stairs between

　　 light and dark symbolism

　　 Does she stand for phonic

　　 human overtone for outlaw

　　 love the dread pull lothly

　　 for weariness actual brute

　　 predestined fact for phobic

　　 falling no one talking too

　　 Tintagel ruin of philosophy

　　 here is known change here

　　 is come crude change wave

　　 wave determinist caparison

　　 Your soul your separation

　　 But the counterfeit Iseult

　　 Iseult aux Blanches Mains

　　 stands by the wall to listen

　　 Phobic thought of openness

　　 a soul also has two faces

　　 Iseult's mother and double

　　 Iseult the Queen later in T

　　 Even Tros echoes Tristan's

　　 infirmity through spurious

　　 etymology the Tintagel of Fo

　　 not the dead city of night

　　 Wall in the element of Logic

　　 here is a door and beyond

　　 here is the sail she spies

　　 Tristran Tristan Tristrant

　　 Tristram Trystan Trystram

　　 Tristrem Tristanz Drust

　　 Drystan these names concoct

　　 a little wreathe of victory

　　 dreaming over the landscape

　　 Tintagel font icon twilight

　　 Grove bough dark wind cove

　　 brine testimony Iseult salt

　　 Iseut Isolde Ysolt Essyllt

　　 bride of March Marc Mark in

　　 the old French commentaries

　　 your secret correspondence

　　 Soft Iseut two Iseults one

　　 The third of Tristan's overt

　　 identities is a double one

　　 his disguise as nightingale

　　 in Tros then wild man in Fo

　　 Level and beautiful La Blanche

　　 Lande of disguise episodes

　　 the nocturnal garden of Tros

　　 Fo recalls the scene in Ovid

　　 Orpheus grief stricken over

　　 the loss of Eurydice sits by

　　 the bank of a river seven days

　　 I see Mark's shadow in water

　　 Mark's moral right to Iseult

　　 David's relationship to Saul

　　 Lean on handrail river below

　　 Sense of depth focus motion

　　 of chaos in Schlegel only as

　　 visual progress into depth its

　　 harsh curb estrangement logic

　　 Realism still exists is part

　　 of the realist dual hypothesis

　　 Dual on verso as one who has

　　 obeyed acceleration velocity

　　 killing frost regenerative thaw

　　 you other rowing forward face

　　 backward Hesperides messenger

　　 into the pastness of landscape

　　 inarticulate scrawl awash air

　　 Insufferably pale the icy

　　 limit pulls and pulls no

　　 kindness free against you

　　 Deep quietness never to be

　　 gathered no blind threat

　　 Assuredly I see division

　　 can never be weighed once

　　 pale anguish breathes free

　　 to be unhallowed empty what

　　 in thought or other sign

　　 roof and lintel remember

　　 Searching shall I know is

　　 some sense deepest moment

　　 What is and what appears

　　 The way light is broken

　　 To splinter color blue

　　 the color of day yellow

　　 near night the color of

　　 passion red by morning

　　 His name of grief being

　　 red sound to sense sense

　　 in place of the slaying

　　 Tristram must be caught

　　 Saw the mind otherwise

　　 in thought or other sign

　　 because we are not free

　　 Saw the mind otherwise

　　 Two thoughts in strife

　　 Separation requires an

　　 other quest for union

　　 I use a white thread

　　 half of the same paper

　　 and in the sun's light

　　 I place a lens so that

　　 the sea reflects back

　　 violet and blue making

　　 rays easily more freely

　　 your nativity and you

　　 of light from that of

　　 memory when eyelids close

　　 so in dream sensation

　　 Mind's trajected light

　　 It is precision we have

　　 to deal with we can pre-

　　 scind space from color if

　　 Thomas was only using a

　　 metaphor and metaphysics

　　 professes to be metaphor

　　 There is a way back to the

　　 misinterpretation of her

　　 message TheseusTristan is

　　 on the ship AegeusIseut

　　 is a land watcher she is

　　 a mastermind her frailty

　　 turned to the light her

　　 single vision twin soul half

　　 Dilemma of dead loyalty

　　 Mark's speeches are sham

　　 Gottfried shows Tristan

　　 only hunting for pleasure

　　 Emerald jacinth sapphire

　　 chalcedony lovely Isolt

　　 Topaz sardonyx chrysolite

　　 ruby sir Tristan the Court

　　 sees only the beauty of

　　 their persons that they

　　 appear to be represented

　　 Isolt sings for your eyes

　　 Surveillance is a constant

　　 theme in lyric poetry

　　 Le Page disgracié his attempt

　　 to buy a linnet for his master

　　 from a birdcatcher he hoped

　　 to comfort him with bird song

　　 but gambled the money away

　　 and in desperation bought a

　　 wild linnet that didn't sing

　　 His first words occur in the

　　 linnet episode the young master's

　　 perplexity about the bird's

　　 silence so just the linnet's

　　 silence provokes Tristan's je

　　 hero his shared identity the

　　 remarkable bird list in L'Orphée

　　 L'Orphée--the lanner falcon

　　 takes pigeons the sparrow-

　　 hawk sparrows the goshawk

　　 partridge when Tristan was

　　 young he would have watched

　　 hawks being flown his own

　　 little huntingfalcon his

　　 observation of the way in

　　 which other birds refrain

　　 from their characteristic

　　 habit of "mobbing the owl"

　　 Vignette of the birdcatcher

　　 in the street that day the

　　 linnet's mimic reputation

　　 Parasite and liar of genius

　　 even emptiness is something

　　 not nothingness of negation

　　 having been born Not born

　　 wrapped in protective long

　　 cloak power of the woodland

　　 No burrowing deep for warmth

　　 The eagle of Prometheus is a

　　 vulture the vulture passions

　　 go to a predator tricked up

　　 forever unexpressed in half-

　　 effaced ambiguous butterfly

　　 disguises authentic regional

　　 avifauna an arsenal of stories

　　 Ysolt that for naught might

　　 carry them as they coasting

　　 past strange land past haven

　　 ruin garland effigy figment

　　 sensible nature blue silver

　　 orange yellow different lake

　　 effect of the death-rebirth

　　 eternal rush-return fragment

　　 I cannot separate in thought

　　 You cannot be separate from

　　 perception everything draws

　　 toward autumn distant tumult

　　 See that long row of folios

　　 Surely Ysolt remembers Itylus

　　 Antigone bears her secret in

　　 her heart like an arrow she is

　　 sent twice over into our dark

　　 social as if real life as if real

　　 person proceeding into self-

　　 knowledge as if there were no

　　 proof just blind right reason

　　 to assuage our violent earth

　　 Ysolt's single vision of union

　　 Precursor shadow self by self

　　 in open place or on an acting

　　 platform two personae meeting

　　 Strophe antistrophe which is

　　 which dual unspeakable cohesion

　　 Day binds the wide Sound

　　 Bitter sound as truth is

　　 silent as silent tomorrow

　　 Motif of retreating figure

　　 arrayed beyond expression

　　 huddled unintelligible air

　　 Theomimesis divinity message

　　 I have loved come veiling

　　 Lyrist come veil come lure

　　 echo remnant sentence spar

　　 never never form wherefor

　　 Wait some recognition you

　　 Lyric over us love unclothe

　　 Never forever whoso move

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