freethoughtandmetaphor

The high speed train from Lyon to Paris went so fast it was hard to observe the landscape.  Just when something interesting appeared it was hidden as the train went into a cut.  Then the ride from the train station to the hotel was slowed by much traffic.  I avoided the bus tours in favor of walking and using the metro.

The highlight of my trip, and the reason I chose this travel package, came on my last day in Paris.  In pouring rain I found my way to the Cluny Museé du Moyen Age, which has a great collection of medieval art.  While it was worth taking time all the way through, the major piece is the room containing the “Lady and the Unicorn” tapestries.  After studying these for several years for Lost in the Greenwood it was amazing to see them “in person.”  The photographs cannot give the full effect, though small sections come closer. I sat there for quite some time looking from one panel to the next.

The tapestries are famously misnamed because every panel also includes a lion, heraldic partner to the unicorn, and many animals are represented in the background. Rabbits abound.

Here is a poem from Lost in the Greenwood which shows the role these background characters can play, in the imagination.

Accomplishments Make the Lady

(“Hearing” panel from the Lady and Unicorn tapestries)

A servant pushes bellows,
her mistress touches keys
of a polished table organ.

How long must she practice
to be called accomplished?

Lion and unicorn
carry sculpted poles,
bodies facing outward.

Their heads, ears, lean in
toward the woman musing.

The bored maid could stop
the sounding if she would;
her mind is far away.

Below a hound stares at
a young wolf.  All are in pause,

except six scattered rabbits,
twelve ears on the alert,
expecting sound in the silence.