The Three Fates

Resource added
The Three Fates, a poem by Rosemary Dobson. At the instant of drowning he invoked the three sisters. It was a mistake, an aberration, to cry out for Life everlasting. He came up like a cork and back to the river-bank, Put on his clothes in reverse order, Returned to the house. He suffered the enormous agonies of passion Writing poems from the end backwards, Brushing away tears that had not yet fallen. Loving her wildly as the day regressed towards morning He watched her swinging in the garden, growing younger, Bare-foot, straw-hatted. And when she was gone and the house and the swing and daylight There was an instant’s pause before it began all over, The reel unrolling towards the river.
A photograph of the poem The Three Fates from "The Three Fates & Other Poems" by Rosemary Dobson.

Full description

The poem The Three Fates by Rosemary Dobson is the central piece in her poetry collection called “The Three Fates & Other Poems” published in 1984.

The poem describes a drowning man who calls upon the three Fates to give him eternal life, but instead of granting him life into the future, he relives his life in the past, repeating his miseries, unable to change anything. It documents his experiences of the effects of his life decisions before the decisions themselves, reinforcing that his path is not something he can escape.

Download image “The Three Fates”
  • type
    Image
  • created on
  • file format
    jpg
  • file size
    211 KB
  • container title
    The Three Fates & Other Poems
  • copyright status
    Active
  • creator
    Rosemary Dobson (1920-2012)
  • credit
    Rosemary Dobson 1984
  • isbn
    0 86806 132 8
  • original title
    The Three Fates & Other Poems
  • publisher
    Hale & Iremonger Pty Limited
  • publisher place
    Sydney, NSW
  • restrictions
    No part may be reproduced by any process without written permission from the publisher.
  • rights
    Any fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism, review, or as otherwise permitted under the Copyright Act.
  • rights holder
    Hale & Iremonger Pty Limited
  • rights territory
    Australia
  • version
    First Edition