How to parse this one? Medea is the speakers wife. Is he then Jason? Medea was a witch - a medicine woman - able at magic. So the treatments are not cosmetics but potions? Medea was only destructive after betrayal. But no sense here of betrayal, or fear. Strangely, it reads like a love poem, mostly due to the due to the last image of breathing in spells in bed. And the skin treatments seem entirely benevolent, though you wonder why the speaker needs so much help with his complexion. I suppose part of the impact is a sense of what a successful marriage with Medea would be, A kind of entry into the witchcraft and so, unlike Jason, being safe within it. Thank you for this. The poem walks carefully. I like it.
Thank you Will. The cosmetic treatments are potions, are like magic. That's the basic conceit. It seems like magic to me, who'd never stepped foot into an Ulta store until I met my wife. There's an element of magic to it for men who've never thought about skin care routines in their life (although, how I wish I'd known, as a young man with terrible acne!) Now I'm doing face masks with her at night.
I chose Medea purely for the allusion to drugs and potions, the Medea we meet in the Argonauts, the lover of Jason, not the Medea we see in Euripides, the tragic Medea she will eventually become.
I knew it. You’re actually 230 years old. All that “new romantic” stuff makes a lot more sense now. Do you still manipulate your poi balls? Gotta keep that body toned to match the timeless face.
I do! It’s my main form of exercise. You spin those around for two hours and it’ll tone everything. I do it while I’m writing too, as it’s a way of untying not only the body’s knots, but the mind’s. Loved that last heron poem, by the way. I talked about its virtues in a writer’s chat. Great stuff.
I think William Marsh has identified the main sense of this poem (comfortable love) and the main mystery (is being in a female space a threat to this man, a man?). I can relate to both, purely at the level of biography. I married a younger woman, and she sometimes uses her potions to make me what she wants--a younger man. And I in turn feel seduced and overwhelmed by the family, the house and the love that keeps my testosterone low. What is there to say about this, the love is there and so is the threat, always, and the poem just expresses that, with love at the core and threat at the periphery. In a literary sense, it is a kind of miniature Rape of the Lock, where incelish Pope is himself fascinated--sexually and otherwise--by the female space he mocks and cannot really enter. Except the speaker here has entered Belinda's room and found it mostly just fun and convivial, so much so that his dude credentials are questionable. Is he actually in Circe's cave? One wonders, but not too much! It's a hoot.
Thanks Matt. Yes, it's about entering that female space and feeling like the knowledge they have is, like the occult, mysterious and miraculous, at least for someone who never thought about things like skin care routines. How I wish I had when I was young and riddled with acne!
How to parse this one? Medea is the speakers wife. Is he then Jason? Medea was a witch - a medicine woman - able at magic. So the treatments are not cosmetics but potions? Medea was only destructive after betrayal. But no sense here of betrayal, or fear. Strangely, it reads like a love poem, mostly due to the due to the last image of breathing in spells in bed. And the skin treatments seem entirely benevolent, though you wonder why the speaker needs so much help with his complexion. I suppose part of the impact is a sense of what a successful marriage with Medea would be, A kind of entry into the witchcraft and so, unlike Jason, being safe within it. Thank you for this. The poem walks carefully. I like it.
Thank you Will. The cosmetic treatments are potions, are like magic. That's the basic conceit. It seems like magic to me, who'd never stepped foot into an Ulta store until I met my wife. There's an element of magic to it for men who've never thought about skin care routines in their life (although, how I wish I'd known, as a young man with terrible acne!) Now I'm doing face masks with her at night.
I chose Medea purely for the allusion to drugs and potions, the Medea we meet in the Argonauts, the lover of Jason, not the Medea we see in Euripides, the tragic Medea she will eventually become.
I knew it. You’re actually 230 years old. All that “new romantic” stuff makes a lot more sense now. Do you still manipulate your poi balls? Gotta keep that body toned to match the timeless face.
I do! It’s my main form of exercise. You spin those around for two hours and it’ll tone everything. I do it while I’m writing too, as it’s a way of untying not only the body’s knots, but the mind’s. Loved that last heron poem, by the way. I talked about its virtues in a writer’s chat. Great stuff.
I think William Marsh has identified the main sense of this poem (comfortable love) and the main mystery (is being in a female space a threat to this man, a man?). I can relate to both, purely at the level of biography. I married a younger woman, and she sometimes uses her potions to make me what she wants--a younger man. And I in turn feel seduced and overwhelmed by the family, the house and the love that keeps my testosterone low. What is there to say about this, the love is there and so is the threat, always, and the poem just expresses that, with love at the core and threat at the periphery. In a literary sense, it is a kind of miniature Rape of the Lock, where incelish Pope is himself fascinated--sexually and otherwise--by the female space he mocks and cannot really enter. Except the speaker here has entered Belinda's room and found it mostly just fun and convivial, so much so that his dude credentials are questionable. Is he actually in Circe's cave? One wonders, but not too much! It's a hoot.
Thanks Matt. Yes, it's about entering that female space and feeling like the knowledge they have is, like the occult, mysterious and miraculous, at least for someone who never thought about things like skin care routines. How I wish I had when I was young and riddled with acne!
A deliciously playful poem. Much enjoyed!
Thank you Nina