.png)
Orpheus With His Lute
Orpheus with his lute made trees,
And the mountain tops that freeze,
Bow themselves, when he did sing:
To his music plants and flowers
Ever sprung; as sun and showers
There had made a lasting spring.
Everything that heard him play,
Even the billows of the sea,
Hung their heads, and then lay by.
In sweet music is such art,
Killing care and grief of heart
Fall asleep, or hearing, die.
—William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Why should we bother with poetry? On a bad day it either seems silly and sentimental, or so snobbishly obscure we have no idea what it means. Maybe we should just leave it alone and get on with more practical things.
If we’re feeling flat and uninspired, perhaps we should turn to this simple song by Shakespeare. Reading the words, we evoke the ancient figure of Orpheus—and for a moment hear a voice that has been inspiring people for thousands of years. Orpheus was a poet, musician, and prophet. But what was his message?
Shakespeare’s song begins with the image of Orpheus charming the trees and even the snowy mountains with his strumming lute. All of nature bows in stately homage. The image may remind us of Adam in the Garden of Eden naming the animals—or Aslan breathing Narnia into being in C. S. Lewis’s fantasy novel, The Magician’s Nephew.
In the same way that “plants” and “flowers” have always “sprung” to the poet’s music, so the “sun and showers” lead to a “lasting spring.” The realm of Orpheus is one of perpetual life, possibility, and growth. Poetry is as natural as light itself.
“Everything” that hears him play "hung their heads," as if ashamed of any unruliness and violence. We are meant to imagine not only the “billows” or great surging waves of the sea responding to his lute, but every ant, crag, and galaxy. Orpheus is at the center of one cosmic melody. His calming of the storm contrasts with Prospero in The Tempest rousing the elements to shipwrecking fury.
The “sweet music” of Orpheus is heard throughout literature: in Chaucer, Keats, and Christina Rossetti, for example. To write an uplifting poem that doesn’t strike a false note is a huge challenge. Yeats wrote: “to articulate sweet sounds together” is to “work harder” than “an old pauper” and yet it is to “be thought an idler by the noisy set of bankers, schoolmasters, and clergymen, the martyrs call the world.” Poets true to the song of Orpheus know that the heart of life is ultimately benevolent.Considering the elegance and grace of Shakespeare’s lyric, it is not surprising that it has inspired composers such as Vaughan Williams to set it to music. At the end, the strains of “sweet music” are capable of “killing care and grief of heart.” Even they “fall asleep” or “die.” What delights in destruction is itself destroyed. So what lies beyond the death of misery and despair? The moment we waken back into life.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language.
Christopher Nield is a poet living in London.
