(^228) James E. Miller, Jr.
of the falls as the river runs to the sea—the “sea of blood”—in the conclusion
of Book IV:
the nostalgic sea
sopped with our cries
Thalassa! Thalassa!
calling us home.
I say to you, Put wax rather in your
ears against the hungry sea
it is not our home!
(P,p. 201)
With the recurring cry, “the sea is not our home,” Paterson wades out of the
“blood dark sea” at the end of Book IV and has a refreshing nap on the beach.
All the imagery in the closing lines describing Paterson’s action is the
imagery of life—the dog who accompanies him, the girls he notices playing
on the beach, the beach plums he samples (spitting out the seed, emblem of
renewal), his striking out energetically inland.
The language of redemption moves to the central position in Book V of
Paterson,inherent in the very nature and narrative of the Unicorn tapestries.
The story is a story of death and resurrection. The most magnificent of all the
tapestries is the last, in which the Unicorn appears alone, chained to a tree,
surrounded by a wooden fence in an incredibly beautiful field of multicolored
flowers. Here the Unicorn may be the risen Christ in Paradise, or he may be
the lover finally secured by his lady-love, a fusion of sexual-religious
symbolism that goes to the heart of Williams’s purposes:
in a field crowded with small flowers
.. its neck
circled by a crown!
from a regal tapestry of stars!
lying wounded on his belly
legs folded under him
the bearded head held
regally aloft.
(P,p. 211)
The risen (erect?) unicorn “has no match / or mate,” just as “the artist / has
no peer”: “Death / has no peer.” The Unicorn has been killed, yet lives—