Phoenix and the TurtlePhoenix and the Turtle
A Poem by William Shakespear
Explanations
1 Let the bird of loudest lay
2 On the sole Arabian tree
3 Herald sad and trumpet be,
4 To whose sound chaste wings obey.
5 But thou shrieking harbinger,
6 Foul precurrer of the fiend,
7 Augur of the fever's end,
8 To this troop come thou not near.
9 From this session interdict
10 Every fowl of tyrant wing,
11 Save the eagle, feather'd king;
12 Keep the obsequy so strict.
13 Let the priest in surplice white,
14 That defunctive music can,
15 Be the death-divining swan,
16 Lest the requiem lack his right.
17 And thou treble-dated crow,
18 That thy sable gender mak'st
19 With the breath thou giv'st and tak'st,
20 'Mongst our mourners shalt thou go.
21 Here the anthem doth commence:
22 Love and constancy is dead;
23 Phoenix and the Turtle fled
24 In a mutual flame from hence.
25 So they lov'd, as love in twain
26 Had the essence but in one;
27 Two distincts, division none:
28 Number there in love was slain.
29 Hearts remote, yet not asunder;
30 Distance and no space was seen
31 'Twixt this Turtle and his queen:
32 But in them it were a wonder.
33 So between them love did shine
34 That the Turtle saw his right
35 Flaming in the Phoenix' sight:
36 Either was the other's mine.
37 Property was thus appalled
38 That the self was not the same;
39 Single nature's double name
40 Neither two nor one was called.
41 Reason, in itself confounded,
42 Saw division grow together,
43 To themselves yet either neither,
44 Simple were so well compounded;
45 That it cried, "How true a twain
46 Seemeth this concordant one!
47 Love has reason, reason none,
48 If what parts can so remain."
49 Whereupon it made this threne
50 To the Phoenix and the Dove,
51 Co-supremes and stars of love,
52 As chorus to their tragic
53 Beauty, truth, and rarity,
54 Grace in all simplicity,
55 Here enclos'd, in cinders lie.
56 Death is now the Phoenix' nest,
57 And the Turtle's loyal breast
58 To eternity doth rest,
59 Leaving no posterity:
60 'Twas not their infirmity,
61 It was married chastity.
62 Truth may seem but cannot be;
63 Beauty brag but 'tis not she;
64 Truth and beauty buried be.
65 To this urn let those repair
66 That are either true or fair;
67 For these dead birds sigh a prayer.
Explanations
According to mythical tradition the unique phoenix bird, after a life of five hundred years was consumed in fire ignited by the sun on the Arabian tree near Heliopolis, Egypt. A new phoenix was born from its ashes.
Dying swans are beleived to break out into beautiful song.
Crows were believed to have a life-span three times as long as that of man.They (And Raven's, too) are also beleived to conceive and lay eggs at the bill, the young ones becoming black on the seventh day.
(i suck at analyzing poetry, so i'm ripping this off several other ppl who i can't remember)
As near as i can tell, the Phoenix represents love, and the Turtle, constancy. Love and constance are one thing.
(the rest of this is me, so if i don't make sense, sue me... lol.)
ummm... love and constancy belong together, but for some reason are torn apart. Love can't exisit without constancy (which is being faithful to the one you love, btw), so it dies. After line 50 or so, it seems to be a funeral.
I would think using the Phoenix symbolizes the rebirth of love, and since the two are one thing, neither existing without the other, constancy would be reborn with it.
It's eternal, but not without pain...Disclaimer
Disclaimer
I don't own anything to do with this poem, and have no idea who does. Although i don't think it's copyrighted. don't take anything i wrote seriously, i don't know anything about poetry, and only did this because i like the poem itself. thanx :)