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JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY , THE POET AS FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT HOME

JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY
THE POET AS FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT
by Thomas Earl Williams with primary illustrations by Katherine Kuonen and the great assistance of Robert Tinsley with Riley artifacts, Copyright, 1997, Thomas Earl Williams

Part 3

1 4 • THE POET AS FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT
Riley at the time of writing "The Flying Islands of the Night." A (Photograph from a tintype of Riley enclosed in a letter of October 10. 1879 to Elizabeth Kahle. Note how the mustache gives Riley the appearance of wearing a huge "frown." For this reason I think of it as Riley unhapy with himself for being under the influence of "Crestillomeem.")

INTRODUCTION TO:

THE FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT

Marcus Dickey, the secretary of James Whitcomb Riley once wrote, "It was not the habit of the Hoosier Poet to explain. Again and again his friends saw him as through a glass darkly. At times he took conspicuous pride in concealing his thought and his way of doing things. My assumptions concerning him remained assumptions. The more his friends sought to know his history the more capriciously he concealed it."

In the cryptic poem that follows Riley revealed his own life in the form of an autobiography with himself in his various "soul-selves" as the cast except for the woman who was his great encourager and "soul partner."

JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY:

THE POET AS FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT:

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO
RILEY'S AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL POEM

It is a simple fact that James Whitcomb Riley tended to write out of his own experiences. There is not a single poem where Riley's fantasies are not based on some projection out of his life. Riley's prodigious imagination used himself always to create his poetry.

If this is so, where does Riley's "The Flying Islands of the Night" fit in? It is certainly obscure at places. It stands out so in the body of his poetry like a sore thumb because of its length as well as its oddity.

The only answer appears to be that Riley made it obscure for a reason. It was the most "personal" poem he ever wrote. The poem describes the groping of his own soul. It is the last rush of the madness from his impetuous youth. Then, Riley sheltered his soul from criticism by obscuring his poetic expression of it.

THE FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT • 15

Riley portrays himself "married" to alcoholism personified as the "nasty" Queen Crestillomeem. Riley is first introduced as his minstrel self called Jucklet. This is Riley's "survival self" at the soul level. Jucklet has to live "underground" and he can only "peep out" when Crestillomeem permits.

Riley lived by his wits and was often penniless during the period of his "minstrel wandering" twenties. He had begun consoling himself from trag­ic events in his life with overuse of alcohol. This poem tells us of the out­come of all of this. You will be very surprised.

In "The Flying Islands of the Night" Riley must experience the effects of

1 6 • THE POET AS FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT

alcoholism. The "night" in the title is a reference to alcohol addiction. Riley's contemporary of the related book FIFTEEN YEARS IN HELL, Luther Benson, says: "...From time to time until I tried to break the terrible chain...of intemperance, my life was one long, hopeless, blank, black night." Riley's alcoholism was his night too. He feared himself sinking into a "night" of depression, delirium and madness.

Riley's alcoholism as his nature as "Crestillomeem."  The name evokes his crestfallen feelings as an illness which is "me" both backwards and forwards.

The second great theme is   Riley's groping for  salvation from his alcoholism. As his mind turns to recollections of loving encouragement and true friendship he has known, he remembersNellie Millikan in the days before the poem was written. Nellie is the only other character in the original play which is not a Riley "personified personality breakdown." Nellie is "Dwainie" who tells the fearfully drunken Riley she will continue to encourage him and love him even though she is now recently dead.

Riley could redeem himself from alcoholim because his dead Nellie would encourage him.

     Alcoholism was treated as a fatal character flaw in Riley's day. It is described in a comical poem entitled "Greenfield" by John A. Riley, the poet's brother.

("Greenfield is a thriving town/And if you view it up and down/Just five dozzens you will see/And yet many drunken loafers on a spree./Some you'll see so very tight/They tumble down the ground ried friend, who to fight/On staggering round from place to place/Up flies the ground right in their face/And now dear friends I bid adieu/Since I have told all both to me and you/I bid you all a short farewell/No more on Greenfield hopes to dwell.") (Courtesy of The Riley Home Society. Greenfield. Indiana.)

Nellie represents hope for Riley. How can redemption come out of drunken uselessness?  What good could a redeemed Riley become? Another surprise is in store!

Nellie's other worldly confidence in Riley remaining following her death can inspire him to become a new man.

The version of "The Flying Islands of the Night" which follows was the original one. In a later expansion of the original play for a book, Riley adds his mother, Elizabeth as "AEo" as an encourager along with Nellie. Dwainie will eventually convince Riley in the poem that she is still encouraging him in spirit and this gives Riley the strength to produce the Godly poetry of "Spraivoll," the "tune fool" of Riley's cast of self-characters.

A minor comical but tragic theme of "Flying Islands" is the "Murphy" pledge that temperance ladies were requiring young men to sign at the time the play was written. This pledge committed a person not to drink intoxicants. Riley had

It

THE FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT • 17

recently seen how futile such a pledge was and enjoyed harpooning it. His brother, Hum (Reuben Alexander Humboldt Riley), took one as revealed in this letter to brother John Riley, in 1877: "... within the last few days, on the evening of the 4th of July, I commenced a work that will in time make me more money than any other work I could engage in. I think it is the most honorable work a young man can engage in. I celebrated the 4th in a better way than I ever did before. On that morning I signed the Murphy Pledge and have been at work ever since in that great cause and hope before a great while to bring a great many more into the ranks and try and bring the cause to a great and glorious end. We have already taken in some of the boys such as Jim Walsh, John Huley, John Skinner and his father and many others too (sic) numerous to mention. When I went up to take the pledge Father Wilson kissed me and told me to stick to it. I told him I would try..."

Hum couldn't make it. Disastrous drinking soon followed. The Murphy pledge was a joke. Signing a pledge proved not a real commitment to any­thing. Hum became an alcoholic so severely that often he would disappear without word requiring his family to try to locate him wherever they could find him. In this same year Riley was dealing with his own alcoholism. He saw what alcoholism was doing to his brother Hum. A letter contemporane­ous to Riley's "The Flying Islands of the Night," reads:

Friend "Meeks"

Hum left on noon train to-day and as he was "full", and none of us knew where he started for, we are all greatly distressed. He went east, and it has occurred to me that possibly he had gone to see you — thence this letter of inquiry. And now, dear Jim tell me if he is with you, and if so I charge you, with all earnestness, do what you can to keep him from whisky - for he is killing himself and breaking all our hearts at home. He is good, and would­n't act as he does could he realize what he is doing — and I trust and believe that you will do all in your power to turn him from it. I tried to see him before he went, and was at the depot, but he slipped me somehow. I want­ed to tell him that if he got hard up to write to me for money — I will raise it if he needs it, and if you see him you must tell him so for me. If he is not with you try to find him along the line by telegraphing, and I will compen­sate you for your trouble. It may be that he has not gone far, but let me know at once if you know anything of him.

Very truly yours

J.W. Riley.

1 8 • THE POET AS FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT

Hum's fitful life continued. We know he was in Indianapolis in Feb., 1881, and wrote sister Mary to send him "his things" by express train in a telegram of Feb. 25th. Hum died November 24, 1881 at 5 a.m. at age 25 from severe hemorrhage of the bowels according to the Riley family Bible at the Riley Birthplace in Greenfield, Indiana. Someone noted underneath the entry "typhoid fever," but the suspicion is a complication of alcoholism. Hum's funeral was apparently on the Friday following. Hum isn't men­tioned thereafter in family corre

spondence.

Crestillomeem got his younger brother and now the alluring siren was after James Whitcomb Riley!

The version of "The Flying Islands of the Night" which fol­lows is the first one published. The poem seems an excellent point of departure for a biography of the poet's life. I apologize if "The Flying Islands of the Night"

is sometimes hard to follow. Riley wrote it that way to cause it to be mys­terious and secretive to protect his very fragile ego. Just remember that Riley was all the characters in the cast that follows except "Dwainie."

Only a creative genius might conceive of himself in such an odd but imaginative way. This was James Whitcomb Riley.

His poem continues into Three Acts which we will examine in greater detail as an aid in unraveling the knot of his life - a chapter per character at a time.

Perhaps we should allow Riley to introduce his own autobiography as he did at his "Buzz Club" newspaper article - through Mr. Clickwad - one of the fictional members-who says of the piece: "This is an affliction," contin­ued Mr. Clickwad, unrolling an enormous manuscript, "too great for me to bear alone, and I ask your succor and assistance as humbly and earnestly as ever beggar asked for alms."

Hum Riley. the poet's brother. in a last photograph. dying at 25. The Riley Family Bible lists him with four names as Reuben Alexander Humboldt Riley.

     But let us go now to "Flying Islands:"

ACT I

THE FLYING ISLANDS
OF THE NIGHT

20 • THE POET AS FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT

THE FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT.
A Twintorette.

Dramatis Personae'

KRUNG........................................................... King of the Spirks

CRESTILLOMEEM.............................................. The Queen

SPRAIVOLL........................................................ The Tune Fool

AMPHINE............................................................. Son of Krung

DWAINIE........................................................... Of the Wunks2

JUCKLET.......................................................................... Dwarf

CREECH.................................................................... Nightmares

GRITCHFA NG.............................. Counselors, Courtiers, Etc.

I. The names of the characters have loosely evocative associative qualities. Krung is Riley's triumphant public reputation- or his hopes about it, a sober and rational personality in respon­sibility, success and empowerment. it is Riley as Cronus (or "Kronus"), the Titan, and "King."

Spraivoll is the poetic "tune-fool" Riley. It is Riley the "Christ hymn" poet. The aspect of poetry has the feminine gender, as Calliope, the muse of poet­ry was feminine. Amphine evokes Riley as a lover like Amphion, son of Zeus and Antiope, who, in Greek legend, built Thebes by music of lute which he played so melodiously that the stones danced into walls and houses. Riley played the guitar and violin for romantic purposes. Dwainie is his inspi­rational friend, recently deceased at the time of the first writing of "The Flying Islands," Nellie Millikan Cooley, wife of George B. Cooley. "Dwainie" suggests the Old English word "Dwine" meaning waste away. Nellie was recently dead when "The Flying Islands" was first written in August 1878. Riley shared the author Thomas Chatterton's fascination with old English sounding names. Chatterton's writings were major inspiration for this poem. "Jucklet", the dwarf, is Riley as self-admitted prankster but also Riley's survival self since Riley can only survive by his wits. The name evokes juggler from the Latin joculator, a jester, or joker in the Middle Ages. Jugglers of those days accompanied minstrels and troubadours and added entertain­ments to musical performances, e.g. sleight of hand, antics, feats of musing prowess and a staple of tricks. The form is in the diminutive just as Riley was small. The nightmares sug­gest interior aspects of creed for Creetch and dreads of novel encounters or depressive events where Riley is "greenhorn" and engaged or bitten as by fangs as Gritchfang. That the names are not entirely imaginative, but rather referential and elliptical is supported by some evi­dence. The poet in his 1898 edition of "The Flying Islands" added a footnote to additions to

Rumor's Flutter

THE FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT • 21

ACT I

SCENE - THE FLYING ISLANDS Scene I. - Spirkland at Moondawn -Interior of the King's Court - A star burns dimly in the dome above the throne- Enter Crestillomeem.

CRESTILLOMEEM.

The throne is throwing wide its gilded arms

To welcome me. The throne of Krung! Ha! ha!

Leap up, ye lazy echoes, and laugh loud! For I, Crestillomeem, the queen - ha! ha! Do fling my richest mirth into your mouths That ye may fatten ripe with mockery!

I wonder what the kingdom would become Were I not here to nurse it like a babe,

And dandle' it beyond the silly reach

Of sycophants and serfs. Ho! Jucklet, ho! 'Tis time my twisted warp of nice anatomy Were here to weave away upon our web -Of silken villainies. Ho! Jucklet, ho!

1 ."Dandle" is something like dangle and handle mixed up.

(Lifts a secret door to the pave, and drops a star-bud through the opening. Enter Jucklet.)

JUCKLET.

Spang sprit' ! my gracious queen, but thou bast

scorched

My left ear to a cinder, and my head

Rings like a ding-dong on the coast of death!

For, patient hate! thy hasty signal burst

22 • THE POET AS FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT

Full in my face as thitherward I came;

But though my lug' is fried to a crisp, and my Singed wig stinks like a little sun-stewed wunk, I stretch my fragrant presence at thy feet, And kiss thy sandal with a blistered lip.

1. "Sprit" is Chatterton's representation of the verb for "gives spirit" at "AElla," 2.1332. Chatterton, living in the century prior to Riley, wrote poetry which he fraudulently claimed was written by a monk named Rowley of the 15th Century. Chatterton sold these forgeries for income. The poetry was actually rather good and came to be much admired by Riley. There was no such monk as Rowley, of course, and Chatterton killed himself with arsenic at the age of 17 when his deception was discovered.

2. The external ear in this use.

CRESTILLOMEEM.

Hold! rare-done fool, lest I may call the cook

And bake thee brown! How fares the king by this? JUCKLET.

I left him sleeping', but uncorked his nose, And o'er the odorous blossom of his lips'

I squeezed the tinctured sponge, and felt his pulse Come staggering back to regularity.

And four hours hence his highness will awake and Peace will take a nap.

I. The setting is Riley sleeping off intoxication which becomes subject to delirium in Act H, with recovery in Act III.

2. "Liquor breath."

THE FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT • 23

He spoke my name?

JUCKLET.

I never hear him speak but that thy name Makes melody of every sentence. Yes, -He thinks thou art as true to him as thou Art fickle, false and subtle! 0 how blind,

and lame and deaf and dumb, and worn and weak, And faint and sick, and all-commodious His dear love' is!

1 Riley's love of alcohol.

CRESTILLOMEEM.

Wilt thou wind up thy tongue

Nor let it tangle in a knot of words!

What said the king?

JUCKLET.

He said: "Crestillomeem ‑

O that she knew this great distress of mine! For she would counsel with me, and her voice Would flow in limpid wisdom o'er my wounds, And, like an ointment, lave my hidden griet; And heal my bleeding heart;" and so went on Spinning the web of love in which he lies Bound hand and foot and buzzing helplessly.

CRESTILLOMEEM.

And did he drop no hint of his distress,

And how, and when, and whence his trouble came? JUCKLET.

He spoke as the tho' some woman talked with him -Full courteously he said: "In woman's guise Thou comest, yet I think thou art indeed But woman in thy form; they words are strange, And I am mystified! I feel the truth

Of all thou hast declared, and yet so vague And shadow-like thy meaning is to me,

I know not how to act to ward the blow

Thou say'st is a hanging o'er me even now." And then, with open hands held pleadingly, He asked, "Who is my foe?" and o'er his face

24 • THE POET AS FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT

A sudden pallor flashed like death itself, As tho' if answer had been given it Had fallen like a curse.

CRESTILLOMEEM.

I'll stake my soul

'Tis Dwainie', of the Wanks, who peeks and peers With those fine eyes of hers in our affairs, And carries Krung, in some disguise, these hints Of our intent! See thou that silence falls Forever on her lips, and that the sight She wastes upon our secret action blurs With gray and grisly skum that shall for aye Conceal us from her gaze while she writhes blind And fangless as the fat worms of the grave. Here, take this tuft of downy druze, and when Thou comest on her, fronting full and fair, Say "Sherzham!" thrice, and fluff it in her face.

I. Nellie Millikan Cooley, Riley's beloved married friend, who died shortly before the pub­lication of this piece

JUCKLET.

Thou knowest little magic, 0, my queen, But all thou dolt is very excellent.

And now for Amphine - he, too, doubtless, has Been favored with an outline of our scheme. And I would kick my soul all over hell If I might juggle his fine figure up

In such a shape as mine.

CRESTILLOMEEM.

Then this: if thou

Canst ever find him bent above a flower, Or any blooming thing, and thou canst slip Behind and reach it first and touch it fair,

And with thy knuckle strike him on the breast, Then his fine form will shrink and shrivel up As warty as a toad's - so hideous

Thine own will seem a marvel of rare grace, Tho' idly speakest them of mystic skill

'Twas that which won the king for me - 'twas that

THE FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT • 25

Bereft him of his daughter' ere we had

Been wedded for a month; she strangely went Astray one morning from the palace steps; And when the dainty vagrant came not back And all the spies in Spirkland in her quest Came straggling empty-handed home again Why, then the wise king wiped his rainy eyes And sagely tho't the little toddler strayed Out to the island's edge and tumbled off. I could have set his mind at ease on that; I could have told him when she tumble off I tumbled her, and tumbled her so far She tumbled in another land, from which But one charm known to art can tumble her Back into this.

1. Spraivoll, Riley's poetic self, in this delirium tremens attack from alcoholic binge.

JUCKLET.

Ay. true enough, perhaps!

But dost thou know that rumors float about Among thy subjects of thy sorceries? And if my counsel is worth aught to thee, Then have a care thy charms do not revert Upon thyself!

CRESTILLOMEEM.

Ha! ha! no fear of that

While Krung remains ‑

(She pauses abruptly, and a voice of exquisite melody is heard singing.)

VOICE.

When kings are kings, and kings are men ‑

And the lonesome rain' is raining ‑

O who shall rule from the red' throne then, And who shall wield the scepter when ‑

When the winds' are all complaining?

When men are men, and men are kings -And the lonesome rain is raining - 0 who shall list as the minstrel sings

26 ^O THE POET AS FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT

Of the ermine robes and the signet rings when the winds are all complaining?

1. Rain most often refers to God's judgment on sinners in frontier American poetry. Such imagery often derives from scripture in this case possibly Ez. 38.22.

2. Red is the color of sin in frontier American Protestant folklore. This probably derives from Isaiah 1.18. The sin in this use would he the overuse of alcohol.

3. The wind is often a depiction of the operation of the Holy Spirit within the world in the same folklore tradition. John 3.8. In light of the imagery of Spraivoll's initial poem, we would suspect the answer to the poem's question is no one.

CRESTILLOMEEM. Whence flows that sweetness, and whose voice is that?

JUCKLET.

The voice of Spraivoll if mine ears are tuned.

CRESTILLOMEEM.

And who is Spraivoll, and what song is that she sings?

JUCKLET.

Spraivoll, the Tune Fool is she called

By those who meet her in her nightly rounds.' She comes from Wunkland, as she so declares, And has been roosting round the palace here For half a 1770017.

1. Riley only wrote poetry at night.

CRESTILLOMEEM.

And pray, where is she perched?

JUCKLET

Under some dingy cornice', like enough. She is no woman, tho' - and yet, indeed She is licensed idiot, and drifts

About as restless, and as useless, too, As any lazy breeze in summertime.

THE FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT • 27

I'll call her forth to greet your majesty ‑

Ho! Spraivoll! Ho! my plumeless bird, flit here!

1. Riley was writing most of his poetry at this time in a place he called the "Morgue," an upstairs space in row office buildings in downtown Greenfield, Indiana.

(From behind a group of statuary Spraivoll enters.)
SPRAIVOLL. (Singing')

Ting-along aling-ting! Tingle-tee! Ting-aling, aling-ting! Tingle-tee!

The world runs round and round for me; Wind it up with a golden key

Ting-aling, aling-ting! Tingle-tee!

1. Spraivoll's songs contain eluded and unintelligible words because, we remember, Riley cannot write poetry while he is intoxicated as he is in Acts I and II. Spraivoll does much bet­ter in Act III when she is "herself' or rather Riley "himself."

JUCKLET.

Who art thou, woman, and what singest thou? SPRAIVOLL. (Singing.)

What sings the breene' on the wertling-vine',

And the tweck³ on the bamner-stem4? The song they sing is the same as mine,

And mine is the same to them.

1. Probably a brown wren. Under Chatterton's "Rowley" technicalities, any word that can take a terminal "e" does so. Riley's poem has elements of Chatterton "takeoff."

2. Wert, wyrt, wairt, wurt, wort (as in liverwort) refers to a herb in Middle English. A "wertling-vine" is possibly a herb-vine.

3. Probably suggestive of a "twaddling" (or silly) "peck" or "woodpecker" although the "tw" might refer to the Middle English twecche (twitch).

4. A "bamner-stem" is possibly a "runner bamboo stem" or some such.

JUCKLET.

Your majesty may be surprised somewhat,

But Spraivoll cannot talk; her only mode

Of speech is melody: and thou mh,^Yht'st put

The gifted fool a-thousand questions, and

In full return. receive a thousand songs,

Each set to different tunes - as full of naught

As space is full of emptiness.

CRESTILLOMEEM.

A fool?

A fool, and with a voice so strangely sweet?

A fool?

28 • THE POET AS FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT

JUCKLET.

Ay, warranted! Around the world

She walks unrivalled, and a queen of fools ‑

Eh, Spraivoll?

SPRAIVOLL. (Singing.)

0, Aye! Tho' Spirkland has grown great

In foolish ways, I ween

Her greatest fool will intimate,

He bows to me as queen.

CRESTILLOMEEM. So! my Jucklet finds his peer!

Come hither woman, and be not afraid, For I like fools so well I married one.

And since thou art a queen of fools, and he

A king, why I've a mind to bring you two Together in some way. Canst use thy tongue

in such a wise thy hearer can but list?

SPRAIVOLL. (Singing.) If one should ask me for a song

And I should answer, then my tongue

Would twitter, trill and troll along Until the song was done.

Or should one ask me for my tongue,

And I should answer with a song, I'd trill it till the song was sung

And troll it all along.

CRESTILLOMEEM. Thou art indeed a fool, and one I think

To serve my purpose well. Give ear to me!

And Jucklet, thou go to the

king and wait

His waking; then repeat

these words: "The queen

Impatiently awaits his majesty, And craves his presence in the

THE FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT • 29

Tower of Stars,'

That she may there express all tenderly

Her great solicitude and" - there, say this:

"So much she bade, and drooped her glowing face Deep in the shadows of her unbound hair,

And with a flashing gesture of her arm

Turned all the moonlight pallid, saying, "Haste!"

1. A "tower of stars" is the prison of his hopes for success. In Riley's personal symbolism, a tower is a place of bondage where one is made a prisoner. SEE: Contemporaneous Riley letter to the Cooleys and his beloved married friend, Nellie Cooley, dated October 28, 1877 "...take me your prisoner and 'fasten me down forever in the round tower of your heart; and I'll never murmur for release till heaven dawns thro the gates." In Riley imagery, stars have to do with success. In a letter to his brother John of Nov. 16, 1874. Riley states, "In those dark hours (of drifting while a sign painter), I should have been content with the twinkle of the tiniest star."

JUCKLET.

And would it not be well to hang a pearl Or two upon thy silken lashes? CRESTILLOMEEM.

Go! (Jucklet disappears.)

Now fool, I'll furnish thee a topic for A song: A woman once, with angel in Her face and devil in her heart, had cause To breed confusion to her sovereign lord, And work the downfall of his haughty son

 ‑

The issue of a former marriage, who Inspired her hatred from the very first; Thro' her the king is haunted with a dream That he is soon to die, and so prepares The throne for the ascension of the son.

The woman now has won the husband's love, And by her craft and wanton flatteries Sways him to every purpose hut the one Most coveted. And so, to serve that end She would make use of thee, and if thou dost Her will as her good pleasure shall direct.

Why, thou shalt sing at court, and thy sweet voice Shall woo the echoes of the listening throne. At present does the king lie in a sleep Drug-wrought and deep as death - the after-phase

30 • THE POET As FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT

Of an unconscious state in which each act Of his throughout his waking hours is so Rehearsed in manner, motion, deed and word Her spies may tell her of his very tho't,

And should he come upon the throne to-night Where his wise counselors sit waiting him, Then has she cause to think her purposes Will fall in jeopardy; but if he fail, Thro' any means, to lend his presence there, Then, by a former mandate, is his queen Empowered with all sovereignty to reign And work the royal purposes instead. Therefore the queen has set an interview With him that will occur at noon to-night -One hour ere the time the throne convenes -And with her thou shalt go, and lie in wait Until she signal thee to sing, and then

Shalt thou so work upon his mellow mood With that unearthly magic of thy voice ‑

So dazzle all his serious tho't with dreams -The queen may, all unnoticed, slip away, And leave thee singing to a throneless king.

SPRAIVOLL. (Singing.)

And who shall sing for the haughty son

While the good king droops his head?
And will he dream when the song is done

That a princess fair lies dead?'

I. If he is drunk, can he forget about his dead friend, Dwainie (Nellie) recently deceased?

CRESTILLOMEEM.

The haughty son has found his "song" sweet curse

And may she sing his everlasting dirge! She conies from that near-floating land of thine,

And with her fairer skin and finer ways, Has caught the prince between her mellow palms And

stroked him flutterless. Didst ever hear

THE FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT • 31

Of Dwainie, of the Wunks?

SPRAIVOLL. (Singing.)

' Ay, "Dwainie! My Dwainie!" The lurloo² ever sings,

 A tremor in his flossy crest And in his glossy wings,

And "Dwainie! My Dwainie" The winnow welvers call,

But Dwainie hides in Spirkland

And answers not at all.

The teeper' twitters "Dwainie!"

The tcheucker⁴ on his spray

Teeters up and down the wind And will not fly away;

And "Dwainie! My Dwainie:"

The drowsy oovers^s drawl;
But Dwainie hides in Spirkland

And answers not at all.

O Dwainie! my Dwainie.!

The breezes hold their breath;

The stars are pale as blossoms,

And the night as still as death;

And "Dwainie! My Dwainie!"

The fainting echoes fall;

But Dwainie hides in Spirkland
And answers not at all.

1.   A poem of Riley's anguish over his separation from his great soulmate, Nellie Cooley, so recently deceased. Spraivoll, Riley's poetic self, cannot reach Nellie; only Amphine, Riley's manifestation of love, can, as we will soon discover.

2.   Dwainie (Nellie Cooley) is evoked to Riley by an alluring but hidden spirit. "Lurloo" is a name in intoxicated onomatopoeia through formation of allegorical qualities rather than from animal sounds. The name probably derives from the archaic form "lure" in the sense of an enticement or allure and the loo which suggests a masking of an appearance as in the loo or mask a woman wore to avoid tanning her complexion. The fantastic bird creatures of "Dwainie" are spirits, a common Riley catachresis extending the obvious "bird" word into a proper poetic, as in "Song of the Rain."

3.   Something which "tees" draws, tugs, pulls. Such a spirit twitters about Dwainie. Possibly

32 • THE POET AS FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT

a tree-toad which is said to "twitter" in Riley's poem "A Treat Ode" of roughly contempora­neous time. ("Scurious-like!" said the tree-toad, - \"I've twittered for rain all day...")

4.   A tcheucker has the intoxicatese onomatopoeic ring of a squirrel's call.

5.   oover suggests a compaction of "owl hooting overhead" giving its "h000000000t."

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