Out of Egypt:

"John Keats and Gideon's Fleece"

Poem: a product of Bob's poetry game. Fun game; Bob, we'll miss you.

Style: common meter obscurities that somehow remind me of a low-grade Keats imitator.

Subject Matter: well, we'll see. Suffice it to say that the metaphorical reading of the story of Gideon's fleece, which I read about in the Oxford Book of Medieval Literature, was on my mind. And my words were odd.

The flower dropsy with the dew,
Impregnant droplet on the fern.
Madonna brings forth Christ unstained.

(Sidenote: The Biblia Pauperum, which I linked to explain the Gideon's fleece reference, seems like quite an interesting work. Medieval lectio divina, while it may seem strained to us today, trained as we are on historico-critical analysis, certainly brings across the unity of Scripture. And it was a universal practice at the time - you can't get away from it.

Also I was using the word "dropsy" to mean "intoxicated." If it doesn't mean that, well, then my poem doesn't quite work. But, hey, you've got to work with the words that you're given.)

Cool subject matter. The medieval tradition of the golden fleece has been one that has always interested me, especially the way they mix it with Jason's fleece in a mixing of sacred and secular that only a medieval mind can manage. In fact, around 1420, the duke of Burgundy (Philip the Good) founded an entire chivalric order called the Order of the Golden Fleece (Ordre de la Toison d'Or). Cool, eh?

Posted by: Jeannette at January 18, 2005 4:36 PM

Dropsy is a disease, technically called edema. See http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/oedema?view=uk for more details. "Dropsy" connotes "swollenness," which might still fit with your poem.

Posted by: funkefreak at January 19, 2005 8:52 AM