WHAT THE SIRENS SANG
W HEN cold Odysseus, strapped to the mast, heard That siren song sweeter than fluting bird- ¢ What was their burden? Not lust, for he had known Calypso’s cavern, Circe’s bed of stone, And wearied soon. Say then, Fidelity? Pride was his polestar, never Penelope. Heroic deeds? The aching of old wounds In rainy weather charted his battlegrounds. Did he see shoulder-naked nymphs rise From the wake with wisdom in their halcyon eyes? No. He heard those snake-haired brazen-throated Oracular women cry from rocks foam-sheeted: "Wildfire is every hope-war, love and praise. We know the straight end of crooked ways, Oblivion, the sharp ointment for all harms. _We know what Ruin is. Come to our iron arms." The oarsmen straining double with wax-stopped ears Saw on his cheeks the dew of sweat and tears.
James K.
Baxter
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19510727.2.24
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 25, Issue 630, 27 July 1951, Page 11
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140WHAT THE SIRENS SANG New Zealand Listener, Volume 25, Issue 630, 27 July 1951, Page 11
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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