The Phoenix

The Phoenix is a mythical sacred firebird that can be found in many mythologies from the ancient Greeks, Egyptians and Romans. The legend of the Phoenix has been around for centuries, it’s a supernatural creature with a life of a thousand years. Once its life is up it will cast itself in flames, and as it dies it will be reborn again from its own ashes. The Phoenix has long been presented as a symbol of rebirth, immortality, and renewal. The Phoenix can be interpreted in various ways; lets explore and define this mythical creature that is reborn from its ashes. What does the Phoenix tell us, we will first explore Amy Clampitts view and representation of the Phoenix. Amy concentrates on the flaming burning death of the bird
No”, what Levertov is saying in these first lines is that your future has not been written yet. There are no words or instruction in your manuscripts, so don’t wait for someone to rescue you or to show you the path. She then writes “articulated, moments forced out of the stream of perception to play statue and never released they had no blood to shed.” Here I feel that Levertov may be speaking of the elders around us “articulated, moments forced”. What she is trying to convey is to create your own destiny don’t let the streams of perception get the best of you; for those that surround you will not help you and like a statue they have no blood to shed. You yourself! Shall shed your own blood to create your path.
In her last stanza she write “ You must seek the ashy nest itself if you hope to find charred feathers, smoldering flight bones, and a twist of singing flame.” I perceive that this means that you must seek your own place in life, find your nest but learn from the past and what you have left behind. The interpretation of the poem to the Phoenix is that we must take our encounters and associate them to our past. Denise Levertov says go to the “ashy nest itself” and you may find what you are looking.
May sartons’ poem The Phoenix Again is my favorite out of the three; her perspective is the most positive and inspiring. I consider it my favorite because it follows the folklore myths of the Phoenix and its traditional meaning. The pome’s first few lines describes