Dario's Poems

Dario's poems are very interesting. As said in class, his poems are filled with allusions. For example, Dario makes allusions to Greek and Roman mythology. In the last stanza of his poem, Springtime, he makes a reference to the Ancient Romans when he states that "My sweet muse Delicia/brought me a Greek amphora/carved out of alabaster" (33). An amphora is a storage used by the Ancient Greeks and Romans to carry wine and oil to the winner of the Panathenaic games. The Panathenaic games was part of a festival to honor the Greek goddess Athena, the wisdom, war, the arts, industry, justice and skill. This is one allusion to Greek mythology. Another allusion is that in this quote, Dario uses the word "muse" as an allusion to the nine daughters of Zeus that provided inspiration for different areas. I think that by saying the "muse Delicia" he is referring to the wine that he continues to discuss in the last stanza. The wine that Dario discusses in the last stanza is "Naxos wine" (33). Naxos is a Greek island that was famous, in the ancient times, as a center of Dionysian worship. Dionysus was the Greek god of wine, agriculture, and fertility of nature. Therefore, it makes sense that the wine would named after the island Naxos and the island would be place of worship to the god Dionysus. In addition, Dario makes a reference to the Roman goddess Diana when he states in his poem Springtime, "Diana is on the amphora,/regally proud and tall/" (33). Diana was the goddess of nature, fertility and childbirth and is portrayed as a huntress being accompanied by a deer and Dario states that Diana has a "stance of a huntress"(33). Dario's poem, It was a Gentle Air, is filled with allusions to Greek and Roman mythology. On page 35, Philomel is a nightingale and is a reference to the Greek mythology tale of Philomela and Procne. Procne, Philomela's sister, was married to King Tereus of Thrace, who is one of the sons of Ares, and they had a son named Itys. Tereus raped Procne's sister Philomela and then cut her tongue and imprisoned her so that she couldn't tell anyone of what he had done to her. Philomela managed to weave a tapestry to tell her sister Procne what Tereus had done. In revenge, Procne killed and cooked Itys, her son, so that Tereus could eat his son for dinner. When Tereus found out what Procne had done, he chased the two women and tried to kill them, but before he could, Tereus was turned into a hoopoe (a bird similar to the kingfisher), Procne was turned into a swallow, and Philomela was turned into a nightingale, hence why a nightingale is called a Philomel in poetry. I think that the grief that the nightingale may be singing is the grief of being raped. I think that Dario uses so many allusions in his poetry to make his poetry more elaborate. Instead of writing his poetry short, concise, and to the point, Dario writes with classical allusions to provide imagery for the reader. In addition, I think that Dario is showing how much his literary knowledge he has. His literary knowledge came from his studies in Europe and the books he read in French and Castilian literature. Although the poetry makes Dario look extremely intelligent, it is more complicated for the reader to understand. For the average John and/or Jane Doe who doesn't know too much about Greek and Roman mythology, Dario's poems are really hard to understand. I know that I had a hard time understanding his poems and I had to look up the classical allusions.