Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 11-13
Horn at hip went my love riding
riding the echo down into
the silver dawn.
- As we learn more about the rider, she starts to sound suspiciously like a traditional deer hunter. Hunters usually ride with hounds in mythic poetry, and they often carry horns to alert other hunters when their hounds are onto a scent. Check out our "Best of the Web" for links to Diana, goddess of the hunt, for a good sense of what that might look like.
- And in case we doubted just who was out hunting the deer, we have our answer now. The love that our speaker is so enamored with is also a hunter, out to get the merry deer. Things are getting just a little bit complicated, huh?
- Although this section seems to pick up the pattern of lines 1-3, when the speaker starts to set the scene at the beginning of the poem, notice how lines 12 and 13 don't begin with prepositions. We've moved beyond setting a scene. Now we're in the action.
- Want to know how? Well, for starters, line 12 starts with a verb, "riding."
- But hold on a second—the speaker's love isn't exactly hunting the deer… yet. In fact, she's just chasing an echo—the kind that sounds crystal-clear in the early morning air. That's pretty harmless, right? It's kind of charming, even. So, why are we starting to feel just a little bit uncomfortable? Let's keep reading.