Chapter 9: "It's Greek to Me"

   As Thomas C. Foster states, "...myth is a body of story that matters." The story in the poem "XXI" by Michael Field uses Greek mythology to build that "body." The poem discusses his need for inspiration; his yearning for a muse. He professes that he is "unhappy...sorrowful and wild" (l. 5-6) because the daughters of Zeus have not been near him. The part of the story that matters in this poem is that the poet is lacking a sense of happiness and thus cannot create. Field is using the myth of the daughters of Zeus, the Muses, to dictate his lack of inspiration and give a physical sense to this feeling he is having. Readers of "XXI" know that the author is not actually desperately seeking the daughters of Zeus, but in fact some idea or thing to galvanize his imagination. In this case, myth is a metaphor for the activity occurring in the writer's mind.

XXI 
BY MICHAEL FIELD
Βροδοπαχεες αγναι Χαριτες, δεντε Λιος κοραι

Ye rosy-armed, pure Graces, come,
Daughters of Zeus, be near!
Oh, wherefore have my lips been dumb
So long in silence drear?
And why have I so cheerless been,
So sorrowful and wild?
It was because ye were not seen,
Because ye had not smiled.
Although his prayer the Muses bless,
The poet doth require
That ye, in frolic gentleness,
Should stand beside his lyre.
Ne’er will he mortal ear delight,
Nor care-vex’d spirit ease;
Except he sing with ye in sight,
Rose-flushed among the trees.