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| Luca Cambiaso Psyche carried by Mercury to Olympus before 1585 drawing National Galleries of Scotland |
Psyche in Somerville
I am angry with X, with Y, with Z,
for not being you.
Enthusiasms jump at me,
wagging and barking. Go away.
Go home.
I am angry with my eyes for not seeing you,
they smart and ache and see the snow,
an insistent brilliance.
If I were Psyche how could I not
bring the lamp to our bedside?
I would have known in advance
all the travails my gazing
would bring, more than Psyche
ever imagined,
and even so, how could I not have raised
the amber flame to see
the human person I knew
was to be revealed.
She did not even know! She dreaded
a beast and discovered
a god. But I
know, and hunger
to witness again the form
of mortal love itself.
I am angry with everything that is filling
the space of your absence,
breathing your air.
Psyche,
how blessed you were
in the dark, knowing him in your flesh:
I was wrong! If I were Psyche
I would live on in darkness, and endure
the foolish voices, barking of aeolian dogs,
the desert glitter
of days full of boring treasures,
walking on precious stones till my feet hurt,
to hold you each night and be held
close in your warmth in a pitchblack cave of a room
and not have to wait
for Mercury, dressed in the sad gray coat of a mailman
and no wings on his feet,
to bring me your words.
– Denise Levertov (1975)
Levertov (in her fifties) wrote this poem while pursuing a long-distance love affair with a married man (in his early thirties) – who soon ended the connection in favor of his wife and small children. Phèdre, rather than Psyche, might have seemed a more plausible choice, among mythological characters, if the poet absolutely needed to invoke one.
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| Luca Cambiaso The shame of Callisto before 1585 drawing National Galleries of Scotland |
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| Luca Cambiaso Combat of nude men before 1585 drawing National Galleries of Scotland |
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| Luca Cambiaso Judgement of Midas before 1585 drawing National Galleries of Scotland |
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| Luca Cambiaso Death of Cleopatra before 1585 drawing National Galleries of Scotland |
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| Luca Cambiaso First steps of the infant Christ before 1585 drawing National Galleries of Scotland |
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| Luca Cambiaso Prometheus before 1585 drawing National Galleries of Scotland |
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| Luca Cambiaso Christ nailed to the Cross before 1585 drawing National Galleries of Scotland |
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| Domenico Beccafumi Sheet of studies before 1551 drawing Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Domenico Campagnola Landscape with Juno and Callisto ca. 1540 drawing National Galleries of Scotland |
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| Maarten van Heemskerck Job tormented by Satan among Ruins 1562 drawing National Galleries of Scotland |
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| Anonymous Italian artist Standing figure (drapery study) late 16th century drawing Prado, Madrid |
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| Palma Giovane Study for Solomon and the Queen of Sheba ca. 1580-90 drawing National Galleries of Scotland |
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| Paolo Veronese Sheet of studies for The Finding of Moses ca. 1559 drawing Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |