there is a silence
the silence is a quotation
the quotation is from Agamemnon, a play written in 458 B.C.E.
the play is about a woman murdering a man
the woman’s murder is predicted by another woman: a mad woman
the mad woman will not be silent, she remembers
the remembering happens to everyone except the man who is murdered: he has forgotten
the forgotten thing is:
And on her lovely mouth—
to check the cry that would have cursed his house—
he fixed a bridle.…
for she used to sing to them around her father’s table,
blessing their libation in her pure girl’s voice—
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what happened then I did not see and cannot tell.
the telling is done by Anne Carson, two and a half centuries after the silencing
the silencing is a curse, and is full of curses
the curse is these lines, spoken ten years after the man murders his daughter; a thousand lines later, the knife falls on him, the one he raised on his daughter
the daughter is alive in the silence
the silence is the poem
Sophie Mayer
poemsinwhich.wordpress.com 