The Destroying Angel

Publication Instance Details #1730

Publication Overview

Translation	Is Multilingual	Explicit Irish Context?	Ekphrasis	Has Paratext?	Reference to News, Media or Technology
No	No	No	No	No	No

Details

Human Rights Issues	War HR & Colonisation/Colonial Legacies
Languages	English
Genre	Short Lyric
Medium	Print Collection
Notes	This poem, written in the second person, sets out on the eve of battle, inside a tent. The addressee appears to be in uniform, wearing an explicitly mentioned 'epaulette' (one of two, presumably). Accordingly, a French context can, perhaps, be assumed. The poem's vignette-like quality makes it difficult to infer a bigger picture from the snapshots of details provided. The title, for instance, nods to lethal Amanita mushrooms, known as destroying angels. Death, it seems, is near, perched on the addressee's shoulder. But right there, too, a moment later a cockatoo sits, no, a cockatoo-turned-floozie, no, not one, now two. They discuss Vladimir Nabokov, his interest in butterflies, the fact that they prefer his short stories in A Russian Beauty to Lolita. Many gin-based drinks are had - a favourite of Nabokov's. This raises the question of whether the poem is, on one level, about intoxication and possible hallucinogenic-like side-effects (e.g. double vision). Following this train of interpretation, the ominous 'campaign' that is toasted to could refer to France's Algerian campaign in the 1840s, which widely popularized absinthe, a type of gin, due to French army doctors prescribing it to soldiers to prevent various illnesses common in northern Africa. Absinthe in both its pure and water-diluted form, as well as its making process, are alluded to in the poem as well.