Και βαθια φιλελληνας ο Οσκαρ Ουαιλντ
Poem of the Month: “Impression de Voyage” by Oscar Wilde
Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde was extremely popular in his own time and remains a household name to this day. An aesthete par excellence, he was known for his witty humour, showcased in his famous epigrams and successful theatrical plays. Yet, not as many are familiar with his deep love...
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Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde was extremely popular in his own time and remains a household name to this day. An aesthete par excellence, he was known for his witty humour, showcased in his famous epigrams and successful theatrical plays. Yet, not as many are familiar with his deep love for Greece, and the poems he wrote on his journey there in 1877.
Impression de Voyage
The sea was sapphire coloured, and the sky
Burned like a heated opal through air,
We hoisted sail; the wind was blowing fair
For the blue lands that to the eastward lie.
From the steep prow I marked with quickening eye
Zakynthos, every olive grove and creek,
Ithaca’s cliff, Lycaon’s snowy peak,
And all the flower-strewn hills of Arcady.
The flapping of the sail against the mast,
The ripple of the water on the side,
The ripple of girls’ laughter at the stern,
The only sounds:—when ’gan the West to burn,
And a red sun upon the seas to ride,
I stood upon the soil of Greece at last!
The poem in the form of a 14-line stanza. Wilde author references parts of Greece he had seen in his journey: the Ionian Islands of Zakynthos and Ithaki (the Homeric Ithaca) and
Mount Lykaion in Arcadia (which he refers to as Lycaon – the name of a mythical Arcadian hero and king).
www.documentonews.gr
