Actaeon
The first poem in the collection is entitled "Actaeon’’ and it bears the name of a Greek hero. According to the legend, Actaeon was a hunter who sinned against Artemis and who was punished by her. Actaeon was thus transformed into a stag and killed by his own dogs. The poem with the same name presents the story of Actaeon and his dogs.
The first stanza in the poem presents the dogs and mentions how the narrator took care of them since they were pups until they became almost like his children. In the second stanza, the narrator reveals the names of three of such dogs, Anthee, Philomel, and Chloe and some of their main characteristics what makes them valuable.
In the third and the fourth stanza the narrator writes about the dogs’ capability to follow an animal into the wild without losing its trail and how the master used to brag about the dogs’ conquests to his close friends.
In the fifth stanza, the tone changes and the narrator writes about how the man did something from which he was punished and he lost his life as a result. While it is not clearly mentioned, it is implied that the master was killed by his own dogs which he loved so dearly.
After a Greek Proverb
The poem entitled "After a Greek Proverb’’ is a meditation on life and on human’s role. The poem begins with the Greek proverb, written in Greek but no translation is offered.
In the first stanza, the narrator begins by claiming humans are "here’’ for little time. Despite knowing this, we lie to ourselves and claim we are here for a longer period of time that we are given. The next stanza presents a few elements commonly found in a person’s home and things one might enjoy such as a TV.
In the next stanza, the narrator talks about a river every person has to cross twice. The two journeys are death and the birth of a person and in both cases, the person crosses the river with nothing on him. This stanza is important because it highlights a universal truth, namely how we are born into this world without bringing anything with us and how we leave the world without carrying anything with us.
In the fourth stanza the author agrees that sometimes he is feeling "weepy’’ but the idea that we are just here for a limited period of time helps him move on. This idea is important because the author is helped by the idea that our time here is a limited one. By recognizing this, he refuses to focus on trivial matters and choses instead to focus on what is truly important in life.
In the last two stanzas the author mentions how we refuse to acknowledge the fragile things in our lives and chose instead to hide them away from view in a place where we forget about them. This is however futile as the author highlights for the last time how we are here just for a limited amount of time.
Another Lullaby for Insomniacs
In the poem "Another Lullaby for Insomniacs’’ the author talks about the men affected by the lack of sleep, personified here and described as being a lover. Sleep is compared in the first stanza with a woman without a ring on her finger, or in other words without a commitment towards anyone. Sleep leaves the bed of the lovers and treats them as if they are nothing to her.
The men in the poem realize that Sleep will not stay with them only when she leaves their bed to go to another person and fool them as well with empty promises she will never keep.
Arrowhead Hunting
The poem begins with the description of a land where everything that was lost is found again. The objects that were lost are brought back to the surface by plowing or rain after years after they disappeared. The second stanza describes the tip of an arrowhead which comes to the surface in the field after being hidden from view for a long time.
The narrator addresses the reader and speculates how the reader might imagine how the tip was lost and how it was used by its owner. The narrator ends the poem by claiming how the things that are lost are rarely found by the people who lost them but rather by future generations who have no idea what the purpose of the objects were.
