A Thousand Ships Poem by William F Dougherty
A Thousand Ships
Yes, Leda, you may swim
the pond with just your name on:
hang your tunic on an olive limb
and toss a crust to that swan.
A deceptively simple quatrain that conceals a thousand complexities. The two comments below are a worthy bonus.
It is Homeric. Zeus (the swan) impregnates Leda, whence springs Helen of Troy, the Iliad, etc., and the famous line: Was this the face that launched a thousand ships? Bare-assed girl ignited the foundations of Western Lit. (See Leda and the Swan by Yeats.) Not much gets past you.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/18/2024 11:36:50 PM # 1.0.0.1119
a nicely written quatrain