The Return
See, they (1) return (2); ah, see the tentative
Movements, and the slow feet,
The trouble in the pace and the uncertain
Wavering!
See, they return one, and by one,
With fear, as half-awakened;
As if the snow should hesitate
And murmur in the wind,
and half-turn back (3);
These were the ‘Winged-with-Awe,’(4)
Inviolable.
Gods of the winged shoe (5)!
With them the silver hounds,
sniffing the trace of air!
Haie! Haie (6)!
These were (7) the swift to harry;
These the keen-scented (8);
These were the souls of blood.
Slow on the leash (9),
pallid the leash-men (10)!
(1) The god-like figures he is going to talk about in the following lines.
(2) The return of the gods and most probably an allusion to the second
coming of Jesus Christ.
(3) They hesitantly go two steps forward and one step back and looking
from a distance they look like snow flakes blown away and half of them
again blown back by a blow of wind.
(4) The phrase 'Wing'd-with-Awe' echoes Homeric epithets indicating these
figures could be Greek gods returning.
(5) Most probably Hermes.
(6) German word meaning 'shark.'
(7) They used to be and now they are not, which is in harmony with the
hesitance of their owners.
(8) They have an extraordinary sense of smell.
(9) The dogs are slow.
(10) The leash-men are pallid.
Analysis
The beauty of the poem lies in the fact that two readings of the poem are
possible simultaneously: that is to regard the godlike figures as soldiers,
worn out and maybe disillusioned, and a pack of soldiers who are brooding upon
forming another attack. The word ‘tentative’ in the very first line
bears evidence since the process of understanding is delayed: are the
people who are returning void of any energy or do they have the potential to
break loose another war? As a matter of fact, the first interpretation is more
tempting as the first reading of the poem would suggest it on the surface,
but the existence of some words like ‘one, and by one,’ instead of ‘one
by one’ could also steer the interpretation towards the second one.
The first four line portraits the returning of a group of people-‘they’-
who seem ‘uncertain’ as their movement is tentative; they step forward slowly
as if with hesitation or because of some trouble. In the second fourth
lines, the picture is zoomed in so that ‘they’ in the first part is
here ‘one, and by one’. As I mentioned earlier the word ‘and’ is shooting a
bit of problem here since the phrase could have been ‘one by one.’ The idea
that they are fearful and half-awakened is added to their uncertainty and this
uncertainty is further supported by the movement of the snow. Again here, there
is a hesitation in the movement of the snow and it is ‘half-turn back’ by the
wind. In lines following, there is presented an account of how the group
has been before their present situation. They were ‘wing’d-with-
Awe, / Inviolable.’ Voluntarily going as gods, majestic and fearsome, and so
determined as if their set-mind on their mission could never let loose.
They were the ‘gods of winged shoe.’ The ‘god with winged shoe’ is an
allusion to Hermes the messenger of Olympian gods. The allusion to Greek
mythology readily suggests the universality of this aspect of human
life: that of war. I mentioned war because from the images juxtaposed in
the poem, the notion of war is inevitable. The gods, or soldiers, are
accompanied by ‘hounds’ that were so ‘keen-scented’ they could trace air.
The poem is interrupted here by ‘Haie! Haie!’ In German it means shark. The
poem goes back to its adopted flow as we are represented the used-to
condition of the hounds and the soldiers. The hounds were keen-scented,
and the souls of blood, a phrase which might suggest that they were fierce,
but presently they are ‘slow on the leash’ and their owners pallid which
serves as a contradiction to the color of blood in the previous line. Again in
here, we cannot make sure if the dogs are worn out or they might attack if
unleashed.
Maryam Akbari