Monday, July 23, 2018

The Fountain of Youth


This is a very short poem, so let's start with the complete text (which I was not able to find on The Eldritch Dark):

Men sought a magic spring long years ago,
          One draught of which would youth fore'er renew
What need to seek afar? That fountain's flow
          Runs ever Nature's dales and forests through.

A short work, but one that appeals to me with an evocation of the healing power of nature.  It's even oddly timely due to recent media coverage of the Japanese concept of shinrin-yoku, or "forest bathing".

I'm also intrigued by CAS' subtle dismissal of the outworn idea of The Fountain of Youth, which has had any number of regrettable realizations in popular culture.  At the risk of over-reading, I detect an authorial wink at a cliché.

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