Driftwood 2

From Opel: Immersion Set for Distant Shores
Jump to navigationJump to search

White2.jpg
Go to cover page
Go to i. Introducion
Go to ii. The title
Go to iii. The totem
Go to iv. The far distant shore
Go to v. Driftwood
Go to vi. Dry tears
Go to vii. A circle of grey
Go to viii. To be found…
Go to ix. Information pack

Go to previous page

page 49

Go to next page

Hand-right2.jpg

Even at first sight the lyrics of Opel may seem to be about a shipwrecked man, with dead bodies and flax sails all around. The raft or the piece of driftwood that saves his life has a certain importance.

Thus, one by one, the victims disappear,
Till all save two are gone, two stragglers, near
Each other clinging to a floating tree,
Thrown in their way by chance or destiny.

The storm has spent its fury: now again
Bright skies are mirrored in the glassy main,
And the two seamen, on their friendly pine,
Voyage along in safety o’er the brine.

— Mark F. Bigney, "Wreck of the Nautilus"

Shipwrecked man.jpg

This poem, from the same book by Bigney mentioned previously, is based on a real 1856 shipwreck.
The only survivor, Jim Frisbee, described his driftwood: logs and flotsam.

… a largo log, with roots about as high as my head … I then got on the log, and the next day picked up a panel door belonging to the wreck and laid it on the roots about three feet above water. I slept on this door occasionally, and on Monday, the 18th, we were picked up by the steamer F. M. Streck, not having had anything to eat or drink during the eight days, except about half a pint of water which I caught in the panel of the door on Sunday, the 17th.

— Jim Frisbee  
sources →

Bigney, Mark Frederick. "Wreck of the Nautilus." The Forest Pilgrims, and Other Poems. New Orleans: J. A. Gresham, 1867. 85-86. Print. http://www.archive.org/stream/forestpilgrims00bignrich#page/n85/mode/2up
Frisbee, Jim. "Statement of Jim Frisbee." The Daily Picayune [New Orleans, LA] 20 Aug. 1856. Print. http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cdnc/cgibin/cdnc?a=d&d=SDU18561002.1.4
"A Doll's House." https://sites.google.com/site/kathleenenglish12honors/a-doll-s-house