Disequilibrium, Disorientation and Diaspora
Berkeleyís poem ëPolesí deals further with disequilibrium and
disorientation whereby the poetic voice oscillates between placement
and displacement:
The mind runs north to south
the weirs of the river of thought turn round
the rivers in the heartís valley turn;heading west
I lose my sense of self,
of home, and how the land lies, (p.66)For an Irish reader, the first lines might conjure the map of Ireland
where northern and southern points are inscribed within the mind as
politically charged poles. That the mind runs south could have
ëpoliticalí connotations but the poem does not name Ireland; rather, it
questions orientation and the ability to map. Such a ëpoliticalí reading
of the poem seems forced as the metaphorical map of the poem is not
fixed and resists association with an actual landscape as the speakerís
ëmind runsí south like the water of a river.
Thought is imagined in terms of a river and within this there are
ëweirsí or dams built across the water to regulate its flow. The dams in
the river of thought are barriers that hold back the flood and are
comparable with the male figure in Irigarayís Marine Lover who
sticks to dry hard land and builds dams against the fluidity of alterity.
For Irigarayís mariners: ëExtreme polar opposites seem more desirable
to them than staying in the middle of the undauntable seaí (p.51). In
Berkeleyís poem, the speaker at sea oscillates between differing poles,
and the dams ëturn roundí suggesting fluid movement or flexibility of
thought but also confusion. While stanza two imagines the poetic
subject ëheading westí, no actual landscape is named, and it is not
clear whether the terrain is Ireland, America or somewhere else. A
map is being charted here but it is a map in the mind rather than a real
country. Loss of direction is associated with loss of reason and by
implication loss of self, home and identity: ëI lose my sense of self,/ of
home, and how the land lies.í There is play on the word ëliesí since