The Disciple
The Disciple - meaning Summary
Love That Loves Itself
This short narrative reframes Narcissus through the pool that mourns him. The Oreads console the water, insisting Narcissus loved the pool for its beauty, while the pool reveals it loved Narcissus because his eyes reflected its own beauty. The poem explores self-love and mutual illusion: affection that depends on mirrored images rather than a true knowledge of the other, turning mourning into a recognition of narcissistic projection.
Read Complete AnalysesWhen Narcissus died the pool of his pleasure changed from a cup of sweet waters into a cup of salt tears, and the Oreads came weeping through the woodland that they might sing to the pool and give it comfort. And when they saw that the pool had changed from a cup of sweet waters into a cup of salt tears, they loosened the green tresses of their hair and cried to the pool and said, 'We do not wonder that you should mourn in this manner for Narcissus, so beautiful was he.' 'But was Narcissus beautiful?' said the pool. 'Who should know that better than you?' answered the Oreads. 'Us did he ever pass by, but you he sought for, and would lie on your banks and look down at you, and in the mirror of your waters he would mirror his own beauty.' And the pool answered, 'But I loved Narcissus because, as he lay on my banks and looked down at me, in the mirror of his eyes I saw ever my own beauty mirrored.'
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