Wednesday 2 September 2015

Mark Scrivener Poetry Blog No 79 Aurora


AURORA



Aurora is the Roman name of the goddess of the dawn. Her name may also relate to Latin for gold- aurum. In Greek mythology this figure was known as Eos. She flies across the sky pouring out light before the sun arises. She is ever-young and yet relates in some ways to the passing of time. In Greek and Roman mythology any mortal who is involved with an immortal goddess tends to end up being punished.

For instance- A myth taken from the Greek by Roman poets tells that one of her lovers was the prince of Troy, Tithonus. Tithonus was a mortal, and would therefore age and die. Wanting to be with her lover for all eternity, Aurora asked Jupiter to grant immortality to Tithonus. Jupiter granted her wish, but she failed to ask for eternal youth to accompany his immortality, and he became forever old. - Wikipedia



Painting- Eos by Evelyn de Morgan




                AURORA



First fine and radiant gold-sheen

as dawn broke darkness,

revived world light on vastness,

far eastern-wide,

and showed the soft curve of her form

and lit with solar fire

the gold in her fair hair.



Then suddenly she seemed

Aurora, goddess of the dawn,

alight with day's new rays,

divine and shining there.



Yet then I saw

I was betrayed.

No mortal may

dwell in that wish,

love in that spell-

and live unpunished.



Then I could see

that dawn meant my farewell.



And so that dawn still shines,

in secret memory

of heart and mind...

but only

as sad as some

gold sunset's dying light

before the ever-lonely

long silence of the night.


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