Angelos Sikelianos was born in Lefkada in 28 March 1884 and showed from an early age his love for learning and art. From his work which included poetry, tragedies, prose texts he was established as a accomplished poet and intellectual. His ravishing wealth of music and language show the strong bond he had with the nature.
His interest for greek mythology and secret warships holds a major role in his work. He was inspired by greek ideals and he understood the ancient greek culture as one primary source. That was the base for the Delphic idea which was his vision. He was committed to this idea since 1921 and for a long time.
Angelos Sikelianos promoted his “Delphic” idea not only in his poems, but also in his prose writing, articles, programmes, informative booklets and brochures. His wife, Eva Palmer-Sikelianos supported him the most in his whole career. Together they organized in 1927 and 1930 the renown “Delphic ceremony” and that was the first step for the creation of the “intellectual university” in Delphi which will go beyond the borders at the time and he would exalt the immortal , creative and authentic spirit of “humanitarianism”.
SANGELOS IKELIANOS
The first “Delphic ceremony” took place from 9 till 11 May in 1927. They included the performance of “Promitheas Desmotis”, which was created by Aischylos in the ancient theater of Delphi , directed by Eva Palmer-Sikelianos. Furthermore they organized a folk art exhibition in Kastri, athletic events and traditional dances under the direction of Angeliki Hatzimichali.
The emotion to audience that derives from the tragedy, is from their moral values and constitutes the ultimate force to understand the fact that they constitute an unbreakable entity. Generally the first Delphic ceremonies had an unexpected success mostly because of the innovative revival of the ancient drama. The direction came up with solutions to the problems which were combined with the choreography, the music, the costumes and the reliable archaeological site.
❖ "The Sibyl" (1940)
❖ "Christ in Rome" (1946)
❖ "The Death of Digenis" (1948)
❖ "Asclepius"
❖ “Yiannis Keats”
A branch, the hand of Apollo, The plane tree’s polished, broad bough, Spread above you, may it bring you The universe’s immortal peace. You’d meet me on the broad and shining shore
Of Pylos, so I’d planned, With Mentor’s tall ship pulled up on the beach
Snug in the sand. We would be bound, as those who sailed with the gods, In the winged friendship of youth, And would take our seats in the stone thrones that Time
And custom had made smooth
And meet that man who still in the third generation
Reigned serene, a sage
Whose tales of travels and holy decrees had ripened In his mind with age—
At dawn, we’d attend the sacrifice to the gods, The ritual slaughters
Of the three-year-old heifers, and hear the single cry
That rose from his three daughters
When the axe thwacked,and the blackfringed,slow-rolling eye
Drowned in a swoon
Of darkness, and the gilt horns were rendered idle, A hazy half moon.
The theme of this poem of 64 lines is an imaginary journey in the Peloponnese that Sikelianos was always dreaming to do together with his english friend and poet , John Keats. On 10.12.1946, over thirty years after the composition of the poem, Sikelianos with the help of Rex Warner presents a speech at the British Institute in Athens on the works of Keats.The relevant text was published in the journal “Anglo-Greek Review,” which continued to be directed by G. Katsimbalis until 1952.
John Keats, born in Moorgate, London, was an English Romantic lyric poet whose verse is known for its vivid imagery and great sensuous appeal. His reputation grew after his early death, and he was greatly admired in the Victorian Age. His influence can be seen in the poetry of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and the PreRaphaelites, among others.
John Keats was apprenticed to a surgeon in 1811. He broke off the apprenticeship in 1814 and went to London, where he worked as a dresser, or junior house surgeon, at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ hospitals. His literary interests had crystallized by this time, and after 1817 he devoted himself entirely to poetry.
❖ All his greatest poetry was written in a single year, 1819: “Lamia”
❖ “The Eve of St. Agnes”
❖ The great odes (“On Indolence,” “On a Grecian Urn,” “To Psyche,” “To a Nightingale,” “On Melancholy,” and “To Autumn”)
❖ The two unfinished versions of an epic on Hyperion.
My spirit is too weak—mortality Weighs heavily on me like unwilling sleep, And each imagined pinnacle and steep Of godlike hardship tells me I must die Like a sick eagle looking at the sky. Yet ’tis a gentle luxury to weep
That I have not the cloudy winds to keep Fresh for the opening of the morning’s eye. Such dim-conceived glories of the brain Bring round the heart an indescribable feud; So do these wonders a most dizzy pain, That mingles Grecian grandeur with the rude Wasting of old time—with a billowy main— A sun—a shadow of a magnitude.
The poem expresses the Keats’ reflections on art and mortality. The speaker, is saddened at the sight of Elgin Marbles, of the great Greek statues, housed in the British Museum. The enduring power and beauty of these ancient sculptures, they remind the viewer, that, he is relatively weak and doomed to die. Also the statues seem confused. It is only a “shadow” of “Greek greatness”, which is depicted.
Lines 1-4
Lines 5-8
In the poem’s opening lines, the speaker laments the fragility of his spirit in the face of impending death. He feels like he is about to fall asleep unintentionally because he is contemplating death. He struggles to maintain open eyelids. He imagines the world of the gods playing out in the statues in front of him, and their hardship speaks to his inevitable death.
The speaker uses a simile to compare himself to a “sick eagle” who, unable to fly, gazes longingly at the sky. The speaker notes that, unlike the eagle, at least he can be comforted as he can weep over his inability fly and see “the opening of the morning eye” or the sunrise
Lines 914
The Volta, or turning point, of the poem occurs between the eighth and ninth lines. The speaker now continuous onto the discuss about his personal beliefs. He notes that he experiences a new heart conflict as a result of his ideas of soaring and suffering similar to the one experienced by God. In contrast, the statues make him experience their suffering and be in awe of their magnificence.
The speaker makes sure the reader is aware of the sculptures’ “Wasting of ancient time” by mentioning it. They are still stunning, however there is a noticeable crack in them. Even the most magnificent statue are demolished by time, so he, one mortal man, has no hope against it. The last lines inform the reader that the statues make the speaker think about the billowing seas and the sun. Unfortunately, over everything, time rules.
⇒Representer of Hepatnese School
⇒ Keats' poetry reveals almost all the features of Romantic poetry, such as:
⇒ His poetry is exuberant and syntactically complex
❖ subjectivity
❖ escapism
⇒his poems include features such as:
❖ addition of strangeness to beauty
❖ love of nature, melancholy note and lyricism.
❖ absolute harmony and unity
❖ complete absence of irony
❖ permanent exaggeration and lyrical reform
❖ sublime lyricism.
⇒ He uses imagery personification, metaphors, and alliteration.
Themes in Keats' Major Poems
❖ Transient sensation or passion / enduring art.
❖ Dream or vision / reality.
❖ Joy / melancholy.
❖ The ideal / the real.
❖ Mortal / immortal.
❖ Life / death.
❖ Separation / connection.
❖ Being immersed in passion / desiring to escape passion.
❖ Nature
Themes in Sikelianos’ Major Poems
❖ Greek history
❖ Religious symbolism
❖ Universal harmony
❖ Nature
❖ Ancient greek myths
❖ Women (he saw them as a sanctuary symbol of fertility)
❖ Love
In the poems of both Sikelianos and Keats we detect nature as a source of their inspiration.
Sikelianos always used nature in his poems to express the love he had for it. He was mesmerized by the trees ,flowers and all the plants, because it helped his escape for the reality. The smell of nature was like an antidote for his “wounds”.
Like William Wordsworth he had a cult of nature, though, unlike him, he did not see an immanent God in it. He simply saw another form of beauty, which he could transform into poetry without the aid of memory; he only enriched it with his imagination.
The material was collected and presented by the students