Elements and Craft

If after the catalogue of ships in Book 2 of the Iliad one comes upon these lines from Medbh McGuckian in "Lighthouse with Dead Leaves" collected in On Ballycastle Beach, one is in mind of the power to create wrecks and hulks.

As if a ship that opened her planks
To the carpentry of the sea

It is that suggestive "carpentry of the sea" that harkens to Homeric simile.

And so for day 794
14.02.2009