the widow is a maenad undone
by monologue while the young man whose shirt
she did up could stand for the phantom
Dionysus - despite being hurt
she comes to no more harm than other
maenads - for this drama over coffee
and moonlight on the radio recovers
Phrynichus - his coryphé and trochees -
but above all the single actor -
while any possible action’s off-stage
involving a denuded bed - spectres
from a dead marriage and more moonlit cage -
only the chorus hears the young guy’s laugh
as she returns some way - back from death’s path
Blackwell’s
Oxford
13 November 2018
The Greek Communist poet Yiannis Ritsos (1909 -1990) wrote and published his poem ” Moonlight Sonata” in 1956. That is a truly great long poem.
Phrynichus who flourished between 511 - 476 BCE produced tragedies in which a chorus and just a single actor performed. He brought female characters onto the stage, even though men performed those roles. Aeschylus introduced the second actor.
A coryphaeus was a chorus leader and coryphé (three syllables) is a permissible English version, like the French coryphee, while avoiding the feminine gender and exclusive association with dance.