by Susan Howe

    Iseult stands at Tintagel

    on the mid stairs between

    light and dark symbolism

    Does she stand for phonic

    human overtone for outlaw

    love the dread pull lothly

    for weariness actual brute

    predestined fact for phobic

    falling no one talking too

    Tintagel ruin of philosophy

    here is known change here

    is come crude change wave

    wave determinist caparison

    Your soul your separation

    But the counterfeit Iseult

    Iseult aux Blanches Mains

    stands by the wall to listen

    Phobic thought of openness

    a soul also has two faces

    Iseult's mother and double

    Iseult the Queen later in T

    Even Tros echoes Tristan's

    infirmity through spurious

    etymology the Tintagel of Fo

    not the dead city of night

    Wall in the element of Logic

    here is a door and beyond

    here is the sail she spies

    Tristran Tristan Tristrant

    Tristram Trystan Trystram

    Tristrem Tristanz Drust

    Drystan these names concoct

    a little wreathe of victory

    dreaming over the landscape

    Tintagel font icon twilight

    Grove bough dark wind cove

    brine testimony Iseult salt

    Iseut Isolde Ysolt Essyllt

    bride of March Marc Mark in

    the old French commentaries

    your secret correspondence

    Soft Iseut two Iseults one

    The third of Tristan's overt

    identities is a double one

    his disguise as nightingale

    in Tros then wild man in Fo

    Level and beautiful La Blanche

    Lande of disguise episodes

    the nocturnal garden of Tros

    Fo recalls the scene in Ovid

    Orpheus grief stricken over

    the loss of Eurydice sits by

    the bank of a river seven days

    I see Mark's shadow in water

    Mark's moral right to Iseult

    David's relationship to Saul

    Lean on handrail river below

    Sense of depth focus motion

    of chaos in Schlegel only as

    visual progress into depth its

    harsh curb estrangement logic

    Realism still exists is part

    of the realist dual hypothesis

    Dual on verso as one who has

    obeyed acceleration velocity

    killing frost regenerative thaw

    you other rowing forward face

    backward Hesperides messenger

    into the pastness of landscape

    inarticulate scrawl awash air

    Insufferably pale the icy

    limit pulls and pulls no

    kindness free against you

    Deep quietness never to be

    gathered no blind threat

    Assuredly I see division

    can never be weighed once

    pale anguish breathes free

    to be unhallowed empty what

    in thought or other sign

    roof and lintel remember

    Searching shall I know is

    some sense deepest moment

    What is and what appears

    The way light is broken

    To splinter color blue

    the color of day yellow

    near night the color of

    passion red by morning

    His name of grief being

    red sound to sense sense

    in place of the slaying

    Tristram must be caught

    Saw the mind otherwise

    in thought or other sign

    because we are not free

    Saw the mind otherwise

    Two thoughts in strife

    Separation requires an

    other quest for union

    I use a white thread

    half of the same paper

    and in the sun's light

    I place a lens so that

    the sea reflects back

    violet and blue making

    rays easily more freely

    your nativity and you

    of light from that of

    memory when eyelids close

    so in dream sensation

    Mind's trajected light

    It is precision we have

    to deal with we can pre-

    scind space from color if

    Thomas was only using a

    metaphor and metaphysics

    professes to be metaphor

    There is a way back to the

    misinterpretation of her

    message TheseusTristan is

    on the ship AegeusIseut

    is a land watcher she is

    a mastermind her frailty

    turned to the light her

    single vision twin soul half

    Dilemma of dead loyalty

    Mark's speeches are sham

    Gottfried shows Tristan

    only hunting for pleasure

    Emerald jacinth sapphire

    chalcedony lovely Isolt

    Topaz sardonyx chrysolite

    ruby sir Tristan the Court

    sees only the beauty of

    their persons that they

    appear to be represented

    Isolt sings for your eyes

    Surveillance is a constant

    theme in lyric poetry

    Le Page disgracié his attempt

    to buy a linnet for his master

    from a birdcatcher he hoped

    to comfort him with bird song

    but gambled the money away

    and in desperation bought a

    wild linnet that didn't sing

    His first words occur in the

    linnet episode the young master's

    perplexity about the bird's

    silence so just the linnet's

    silence provokes Tristan's je

    hero his shared identity the

    remarkable bird list in L'Orphée

    L'Orphée——the lanner falcon

    takes pigeons the sparrow-

    hawk sparrows the goshawk

    partridge when Tristan was

    young he would have watched

    hawks being flown his own

    little hunting falcon his

    observation of the way in

    which other birds refrain

    from their characteristic

    habit of "mobbing the owl"

    Vignette of the birdcatcher

    in the street that day the

    linnet's mimic reputation

    Parasite and liar of genius

    even emptiness is something

    not nothingness of negation

    having been born Not born

    wrapped in protective long

    cloak power of the woodland

    No burrowing deep for warmth

    The eagle of Prometheus is a

    vulture the vulture passions

    go to a predator tricked up

    forever unexpressed in half-

    effaced ambiguous butterfly

    disguises authentic regional

    avifauna an arsenal of stories

    Ysolt that for naught might

    carry them as they coasting

    past strange land past haven

    ruin garland effigy figment

    sensible nature blue silver

    orange yellow different lake

    effect of the death-rebirth

    eternal rush-return fragment

    I cannot separate in thought

    You cannot be separate from

    perception everything draws

    toward autumn distant tumult

    See that long row of folios

    Surely Ysolt remembers Itylus

    Antigone bears her secret in

    her heart like an arrow she is

    sent twice over into our dark

    social as if real life as if real

    person proceeding into self-

    knowledge as if there were no

    proof just blind right reason

    to assuage our violent earth

    Ysolt's single vision of union

    Precursor shadow self by self

    in open place or on an acting

    platform two personae meeting

    Strophe antistrophe which is

    which dual unspeakable cohesion

    Day binds the wide Sound

    Bitter sound as truth is

    silent as silent tomorrow

    Motif of retreating figure

    arrayed beyond expression

    huddled unintelligible air

    Theomimesis divinity message

    I have loved come veiling

    Lyrist come veil come lure

    echo remnant sentence spar

    never never form wherefor

    Wait some recognition you

    Lyric over us love unclothe

    Never forever whoso move

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