Ortus
Ortus - meaning Summary
Birthing a Self
The speaker describes intense effort to bring a being or poetic creation into distinct life. He stresses naming, separation, and individuation—transforming a beautiful but unlocated presence into a self with identity. The tone mixes devotion and command, pleading for the beloved or creation to claim an "I" and cease existing only as mingled elements, stream, or shadow. The poem explores creative labor and the demand for autonomous personhood.
Read Complete AnalysesHow have I laboured? How have I not laboured To bring her soul to birth, To give these elements a name and a centre! She is beautiful as the sunlight, and as fluid. She has no name, and no place. How have I laboured to bring her soul into separation; To give her a name and her being! Surely you are bound and entwined, You are mingled with the elements unborn; I have loved a stream and a shadow. I beseech you enter your life. I beseech you learn to say ‘I’ When I question you; For you are no part, but a whole, No portion, but a being.
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