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<DIV>“The waves drummed on the shore, like turbaned warriors, like turbaned men
with poisoned assegais who, whirling their arms on high, advance upon the
feeding flocks, the white sheep.”</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The CUP edn of “The Waves” states that “The imagery is confused here”, and
indeed it is, but I’m surprised that the editors don’t go on about sheep-farming
in E. Africa and Imperialism.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>However, perhaps there’s also a classical allusion mixed up in all
this. In Book XII of the “Odyssey”, Circe warns Odysseus:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">“You will now come to the Thrinacian island,
and here you will see many herds of cattle and flocks of sheep belonging to the
sun-god—seven herds of cattle and seven flocks of sheep, with fifty head in each
flock. They do not breed, nor do they become fewer in number, and they are
tended by the goddesses Phaethusa and Lampetie, who are children of the sun-god
Hyperion by Neaera. Their mother when she had borne them and had done suckling
them sent them to the Thrinacian island, which was a long way off, to live there
and look after their father's flocks and herds. If you leave these flocks
unharmed, and think of nothing but getting home, you may yet after much hardship
reach Ithaca; but if you harm them, then I forewarn you of the destruction both
of your ship and of your comrades; and even though you may yourself escape, you
will return late, in bad plight, after losing all your men.” (Samuel Butler’s
translation)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Guess what? His men eventually disobey him, altho’ they seem to kill
some of the cows rather than any sheep, and, of course, terrible things happen
to them.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Still, there’s no end to these allusions. What about Byron’s:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; LINE-HEIGHT: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: en-gb; mso-fareast-language: en-gb; mso-bidi-language: ar-sa'><FONT
face="Times New Roman">‘The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, / And
his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold’ </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>And then, of course, there is a ref. to ‘purples and golds’ in “A Room of
One’s Own”.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Stuart</DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>