" his friends had gone away to Egypt 6 weeks before but he had stayed behind for he was in love with the most beautiful Reed."
So, Oscar Wilde's Swallow, chose to love a slender Reed who was attached to her home, in contrast to the Swallow, who loved travelling.
But why the Swallow had loved a Reed and not a Swallow? Was that because no Swallow had loved him before, leading him to search for love elsewhere?
Elsewhere where it was not directed to a Swallow, not directed rightly, diverted, if not perverted, to a Reed, because love was a need, even if Abraham Maslow had classified it as a secondary need, not a basic one.
The Swallow, after the negative response of the Reed to his courtship advances, went flying in the aim of reaching his friends who were heading to Egypt since 6 weeks, an aim as dreamy as his first deed, making love with a Reed!
As a child, the happy prince spent his time in the palace, and around, in the garden, never going out of the high walls of the palace. As he died they made him a statue:
"High above the city, on a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy Prince. He was gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold, for eyes he had two bright sapphires, and a large red ruby glowed on his sword-hilt."
Seeing the city from above he saw the poor and their suffering and wanted to help them. He made friendship with the lost Swallow and asked him to take, at first, the ruby of the sword, to one of the poor, then one of his eyes' sapphires, then the other, then, not being able to see, the Swallow started to tell him about what he sees, and they chose a poor and give him one of the leaves of fine gold which were gilding him all over, till finally the Swallow dies from the cold winter, and "they pulled down the statue of the Happy Prince as he is no longer beautiful he is no longer useful".
While Edgar Allan Poe's black cat had lost her eyes for inability of love and chronic bitterness and ill-humor of the protagonist, Oscar Wilde's prince's eyes were given for love which was not understandable by others, little late, but still, fruitful.
3 comments:
I would title this post:"Meet the Reed".
I see very few husbands that truly love their wives so much that they don't even want to cheat on them.You tell me if you know a man that can't be seduced by an attractive woman or fail the honey trap test in your local area.A Honey trap is when a wife or a girl friend of a man hires an attactive woman to seduce her man to test him.
Or "Read the Need", if you agree with me. Being attractive, by definition, is ... is being attractive... but the married attracted man got, just, not to pass some limits. Nowing those limits is the rule, Barbie Johns. Thanks for the comment.
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