Wind to thy wings.

[packbat]

As you may have inferred from my past posts, I am a regular on a webcomic forum. The Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire forum, to be specific. It's a fun place to go, especially if you read the comic - plenty of pun and games for all, and a little bit of fairly-reasoned political debate as well.

One of the people I met through this forum has become a friend of mine on AIM as well. We have had a lot of fun in our chats, and he showed me a goodbye which I find quite striking. That is, the phrase "Wind to thy wings."

Those four words resonate with me. The metaphor of flying is a powerful one, made more powerful by the economy of the words. The use of the archaic "thy" adds to this by evoking the memory of classical English poetry. Still further, the alliterative form is strong, both in the accented 'wind' and 'wings', and the quick, light 'to thy' between.

Content and form working together. Simplicity and elegance. Poetry.

Wind to thy wings.

Comments

[nanakikun.livejournal.com]

*pokes*
I probably shouldn't eat before we play so
Let's I call you then we just play!
But if you don't pick up then
you meet me at the DDR showdown!

[packbat.livejournal.com]

What the ... hey! Off topic!

If you finish your grading before 12, call me - I'll be heading out to the dining hall then. If, at 12, it looks like you'll be awhile, call me - I'll get you a cheeseburger, fries, apple for lunch. If you finish shortly after 12 - leave a message, I'll check it when I get back.

By the way, you can go ahead and engrave my name on that metaphorical trophy right now. 'Cause you are going down.

great benediction!

[(Anonymous)]

I like "Wind to thy wings" as a well-wishing --- it has something of the air of the old stick-and-rudder aviation era, as well as hawking (bird) feel ... and of course there's the Gerard Manly Hopkins poem "The Windhover" which begins:

 I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
 dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding  
 Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding  
 High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing  
 In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,  
 As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding  
 Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding  
 Stirred for a bird,--the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!

etc. ... a very dense poem, hard to understand at the first few (dozen!) readings ... ^z

Re: great benediction!

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Quite difficult to understand, certainly! I looked up a reading of the poem (http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/hopkins/hopkins10.html), and it still is tricky to follow.

Getting back to the benediction, however, I think that the allusion to wind is more general than that. Flying is one of the great dreams that artists have cherished for centuries, and a poetic reference to it brings in the echoes of all the poetry that has been written about it.

Or something like that ... I'm no authority! ^_^