A Magus (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: John Ciardi
- First Published: 1966
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: Magic or magicians, Nature, Missions or missionaries, Reality, Mysticism, Progress, Ecology, Technology, Plants, Astrology or astrologers, Botany or botanists
The Poem
John Ciardi’s “A Magus” is composed of forty-seven lines forming four stanzas of unequal length. The title, which can mean a wise man, an astrologer, a magician, or a priest, apparently refers to the “missionary from the Mau Mau” mentioned in the first line. As the narrator relates in the opening stanza, this missionary has come to testify to “an amazing botany” apparently caused by “spores blowing from space.” This metamorphosis of plants into incredible hybrids provokes the cryptic observation, “The Jungle has come loose,/ is changing...
[The entire page is 1559 words long]
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