Through your UI – day 6 (15 days of screenshots)

This is Day 6 of Serenity Saz’s screenshot challenge.

Favorite Line of Poetry/Lyric

Most of us have a favorite poet or song. Give us an image that you think represents your favorite line, or what line inspires you most. You should probably include said line and *maybe* give some explanation/reasoning behind it, unless you’re feeling overly ambiguous.

I came to explore the wreck.
The words are purposes.
The words are maps.
I came to see the damage that was done
and the treasures that prevail.
I stroke the beam of my lamp
slowly along the flank
of something more permanent
than fish or weed

the thing I came for:
the wreck and not the story of the wreck
the thing itself and not the myth
the drowned face always staring
toward the sun
the evidence of damage
worn by salt and away into this threadbare beauty
the ribs of the disaster
curving their assertion
among the tentative haunters.

From Diving into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich.

I read Literature at University and was introduced to Adrienne Rich’s writing through one of my honour courses. She had me from the first line I read. I’m not going to talk about why I love this poem so much as I’d rather people drew their own conclusions, especially if this is the first time they’ve read it.

Then because I’ve always loved poetry, I thought I’d throw in a second one for luck.

Fruits fail and love dies and time ranges;
Thou art fed with perpetual breath,
And alive after infinite changes,
And fresh from the kisses of death;
Of languors rekindled and rallied,
Of barren delights and unclean,
Things monstrous and fruitless, a pallid
And poisonous queen.

From Swinburne’s “Dolores“.

I can’t help thinking this sums up Sylvanas perfectly. Like Dolores, she is “fresh from the kisses of death;” and a gross corruption of the “Sacred Mother” figure. Given her colouring and fondness for poison gas, the last two lines quoted here could have been written for the Banshee Queen.

This poem also has a soft spot in my heart because whilst I was a student, reading it aloud whilst slightly intoxicated netted more than one date. Possibly they would have asked me out anyway, but I like to think Swinburne made them do it.

(The more observant amongst you may have noticed I went from day 4 to day 6. 5 will turn up at some point.)