Poetry · Chapter
II: La Fuite de la Lune explained
The chapter depicts a serene, dreamlike landscape at dusk, filled with deep silence and the lonely calls of birds.
What happens
The chapter depicts a serene, dreamlike landscape at dusk, filled with deep silence and the lonely calls of birds. The moon suddenly retreats from the sky, hiding in a somber cavern wrapped in a veil of yellow gauze.
Themes in this chapter
Nature and the Seasons
The chapter describes a peaceful, shadowy landscape with a corncrake calling and the moon withdrawing, emphasizing natural imagery and seasonal transition.
Transience and Mortality
The moon's sudden withdrawal and the 'sickle' imagery evoke the fleeting nature of light and time, suggesting impermanence.
Key passages
“To outer senses there is peace, A dreamy peace on either hand, Deep silence in the shadowy land, Deep silence where the shadows cease.”
To the outside observer, everything seems calm and dreamlike, with profound stillness in the dark regions and even where the shadows end.
Sets the tranquil, almost surreal atmosphere of the scene.
“And suddenly the moon withdraws Her sickle from the lightening skies, And to her sombre cavern flies, Wrapped in a veil of yellow gauze.”
Then abruptly, the moon pulls away its crescent shape from the brightening heavens and rushes to a dark cave, covered in a thin yellow cloth.
Highlights the abrupt, mysterious departure of the moon, personified as a fleeing figure.