Virgil (Symbol)
In the context of the poem, Virgil symbolizes an older method of writing about heroic figures. Almost right away, Creeley makes his frustrations with heroic epics clear. He comments that the focus is always on major sequences of actions, usually impossible feats of strength. He notes that he finds only one instance of humanness in Virgil's depiction of Aeneas. Finally, when Creeley identifies himself as the speaker of the poem, he also states that Virgil is long dead. For Creeley, Virgil represents an outdated model of writing poetry, one in which the heroes are rendered as almost unrecognizably powerful and inhuman.
Mountains and Desert (Symbol)
In the last stanza, Creeley writes that "in the way the mountains / and the desert are waiting / for the heroes." The imagery of the vast landscape waiting for the heroes is symbolic. It is a comment on the way in which the world awaits these figures and the role they play in almost every culture. They also function well in the context of the poem because they are general enough to be timeless, but specific enough to fit comfortably into scenes from mythology. Creeley uses this sweeping imagery to point out the way these hero narratives are an essential need. By using such geological scenes from nature, Creeley marks these stories as something that exists almost outside of time, plots told and retold across countries.
