Iphigenia in Sodus
Iphigenia in Sodus - meaning Summary
Myth in Contemporary Confusion
This poem reimagines the myth of Iphigenia in a dislocated contemporary setting. Ancient ritual and names collide with domestic decay, casual political banter and theatrical staging. The speaker oscillates between mock reassurance and uneasy confession while characters shift roles and consult an oracle amid sagging doors and vanished window frames. The poem frames identity and truth as unstable performances that persist in an oddly domestic, decaying present.
Read Complete AnalysesWhy does that name sound so familiar? If I were you I shouldn’t worry, or ask. But—isn’t that collusion? Well, yes, technically it is, but we’re a long way from truth here. Well, it all seems right, but we’ll have to put different bodies on the gentlemen— Something that speaks to truth, as she is now, which is how we all had envisioned her: wrapped in jade strips, more or less flyblown, somewhat sloppy about the mouth these days. Excuse me, I had issues, but then the doors sagged, the window frames had disappeared a long time ago into the murk of this age. Seen now, she pivots frantically near where we—they—arrive to consult the oracle, making small talk the while, about how whose elections needed shortening, and how all this streamed away into cozier times, in ways kind to me, before chopping them down.
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