Analysis of Fishy Reveries - Prologue



If you were to make little fishes talk, they would talk like whales.
Oliver Goldsmith (1728–74), Anglo-Irish author, poet, playwright. Quoted in: James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson, entry for 27 April 1773 (1791), to Johnson.1

All I have ever known is the stream.  
The stream sings to me.
The streamsong is in the blood, is the blood,
the great yearning.
The song of the stream, the song of the birds;
both heterophonies decay sweetly in the distance,
into dissonance, the dissonance of wind,
the polyrhythms of shattering rain in summer shade trees.

The rush of the stream's ecstatic waters,
sometimes underground sometimes falling,
the hungry rush to the goal,
which is outlet into infinite basins
and rising into sea air;
this is a drawing into and an elucidation,
it is becoming, it is being.  
The birds in their tumultuous parliaments understand this by their leavings and migrations, parturition and depart, fleeing cold or rain.

All I have ever known: I am in the stream now.  
The stream speaks to me,
there is discourse and development,
yet also the stream is a falling, tumbling mass.  
It quivers with wakefulness;
the stream is always alert though I may sleep.  
In my sleep I often see birds flying above the surface of my stream.  
They too have red fins and silver scales
and they flash against the iron sky.  
In these sleepings, I often see the birds cackling in their classes and rankings,
I feel somehow these must be discussions of great import though,
as with the stream,
their discourse is not of the common variety,
it invites only the careful ear
sensitive and willing,
its organs open to the polysemous vibrations,
the haunting and the scribbled
sounding too closely to be effectively discriminated.

All I have, ever, is the stream as it is now.  
Hellish is the devotee of the was and the will be.  
Tumbling in the same stream as I,
loathing and reviled,
cast as a devious spurner of the roe,
defiler of shallow pools in sparkling shade,
this follower of the carrion is not to be confused with you;
our confidence is with you.

All: I.  Here we have the equation
incommensurable though it may seem.  
Oscillating to the great heightening,
the great yearning,
we are unoffended by its frightening concreteness.  
We see hope for a condensation of our scattered selves that would heal the spirit;
but condensation implies a shattering,
it is our will that it be so,
we love our fate
aligning will with the stream,
the stream is our will,
we have participated in creating the stream.

In the mundane returning year
 I too will pit my will against the stream
-- loving that it be so.  
As the birds pit wing muscle against the wind
...the planet wind,
there are planets in the wind.  
Black Saturn claims dozens in the windwars;
the headwind sweeps them away,
a-wailing.
I have heard the planet's ways...


Scheme ab cdeFxxgx xfxhxbfx idxxaxcajxkcdxfhxe idjxkxll bcfFaxfkxcxc xckgggaxfx
Poetic Form
Metre 110111010111111 100110101010110011011101010110110 111101101 01111 011001101 0110 0110101101 1101100010 01100010011 011100101011 0110101010 01100110 0101101 1110110010 0100111 1101001011 110101110 010110010001111100010100110111 111101110011 01111 111000100 1100110101001 1111 0111011111 011110111001010111 111110101 011010101 0111101011000110010 11111101011011 1101 1101110100100 101100101 100010 11010101010 0100010 101101101000100 111101011111 1010011010011 100001111 10001 1101001101 111010101 11001010011110111 10100111 111110010 11111 100101100 0110 111111001 11110010110101111010 1010010100 111011111 11101 0101101 011101 110100001001 00010101 1111110101 101111 10111100101 0101 1110001 110110001 011101 010 1110101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 2,883
Words 559
Sentences 27
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 2, 8, 8, 18, 8, 12, 10
Lines Amount 66
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 317
Words per stanza (avg) 70

About this poem

This is the Prologue to a much longer poem that is a Romance and Pastoral. It contrasts two styles of language: a "purple" stream-of-consciousness style, seen here, and a degree zero style in other sections.

Font size:
 

Written on February 13, 1980

Submitted by johnp.96864 on November 27, 2022

Modified on March 24, 2023

2:48 min read
55

John G. Purdy

JG Purdy is an IT Consultant, Writer and Composer residing in Montreal. He has a B.A. Eng. Lit from McGill University. He has a long-standing interest in Music and Language and the interaction and reltionship between the two. more…

All John G. Purdy poems | John G. Purdy Books

1 fan

Discuss this John G. Purdy poem analysis with the community:

0 Comments

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "Fishy Reveries - Prologue" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/145692/fishy-reveries---prologue>.

    Become a member!

    Join our community of poets and poetry lovers to share your work and offer feedback and encouragement to writers all over the world!

    April 2024

    Poetry Contest

    Join our monthly contest for an opportunity to win cash prizes and attain global acclaim for your talent.
    1
    day
    8
    hours
    5
    minutes

    Special Program

    Earn Rewards!

    Unlock exciting rewards such as a free mug and free contest pass by commenting on fellow members' poems today!

    Browse Poetry.com

    Quiz

    Are you a poetry master?

    »
    AA Milne wrote: "A bear, however hard he tries..."
    A "can never stop telling lies"
    B "stinks and attracts the flies"
    C "grows tubby with no exercise"
    D "has very very tired eyes"