To Mark Anthony in Heaven
To Mark Anthony in Heaven - context Summary
Battle of Actium
Williams addresses Mark Antony after his defeat at the Battle of Actium, imagining why Antony pursued Cleopatra into naval battle. The speaker softens the historical ruin by recalling intimate knowledge of her body and by focusing on recurring, peaceful images—grass, trees, clouds—that connect earth and heaven. The poem reframes Antony’s act as motivated by love and suggests that such intimacy transforms a violent past into a gentle, listening presence in heaven.
Read Complete AnalysesThis quiet morning light reflected, how many times from grass and tress and clouds enters my north room touching the walls with grass and clouds and trees. Anthony, trees and grass and clouds. Why did you follow that beloved body with your ships at Actium? I hope it was because you knew her inch by inch from slanting feet upward to the roots of her hair and down again and that you saw her above the battle’s fury —— clouds and trees and grass —— For then you are listening in heaven.
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