“Michael Robartes and The Dancer”
Michael Robartes’s reference to Athena is a Greek mythological allusion that accentuates the hegemony of wisdom. Athena personifies idyllic wisdom that cannot be derived from the college education which the dancer speculates would enlighten her. Michael Robartes surreptitiously hints at the Wisdom versus Knowledge binary when he retorts, “Go pluck Athena by the hair; For what mere book can grant a knowledge/ With an impassioned gravity.” Based on this rejoinder, Robartes is persuaded that instinctive wisdom is superior to scholarly knowledge. Wisdom rises above written content for it is innate.
Michael Robartes applies a historical allusion regarding Paul Veronese: “Paul Veronese/ And all his scared company/Imagined bodies all their days/ By the lagoon you love so much,/For proud, soft, ceremonious proof/ that all must come to sight and touch.” Alluding to Paul Veronese educates the dancer in regard to her enquiry: “And must no beautiful woman be Learned like a man?” According to Robartes, beauty and learnedness are subjective. Therefore, deducing that all men are exceedingly learned is an objectionable hasty generalization. Humans cannot be solely categorized into learned and unlearned because there is a myriad of creeds that impact individuals’ distinctive standpoints.
“An Image From a Past Life”
“An Image From a Past Life” is parallel to “Michael Robartes and the Dance” in terms of organization for both of them engage a conversational framework. In both, the principal contributors are a ‘he’ and a ‘she.’ As a result of the construction, the poems take up the comparison and contrast pattern whereby the he’s outlooks are juxtaposed to the she’s sensitivities.
