Black
Oswald writes, “ The first to die was PROTESILAUS/A focused man who hurried to darkness/with forty black ships leaving the land behind/Men sailed with him from those flower-lit cliffs/…Podarcus his altogether less impressive brother/Took over command but that was long ago/He’s been in the black earth now for thousand years.” Blackness is emblematic of death. The black ships which Protesilaus commands steer him to his demise; moreover, the blackness of the earth accentuates Podarcus’ irrevocable death.
Sorrow
Oswald writes, “SIMOISIUS born on the banks of the Simois/Son of Anthemnion his mother a shepherdess/Still following the sheep when she gave birth/A lithe and promising young unmarried/Was met by Ajax in the ninth year of the war/And died full tilt running onto his spear/The point passed clean through the nipple/…He collapsed instantly an unspeakable sorrow to his parents.” Sorrow is inevitable in the backdrop of death. Simoisius’ parents are undeniably confounded by his unalterable death.
