"Symbiosis or Death": - Rhodes University

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29). This military image is extended to the “ranks of reeds” he encounters in the third
stanza. He stops to reassess his position (another military inference) and experiences a
“vertiginous moment” (line 37). This is not so much a result of his physical situation as
of his psychic confusion. This "moment" occurs in the central stanza of the poem, at the
midpoint of his journey and among tall reeds. This invokes the opening lines of Dante's
The Divine Comedy: "In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a
dark wood where the straight way was lost" (Sinclair (trans) 23). The poet decides “to
plod on” (line 39), to brave his confusion and continue with his quest.
The snake image in stanza four is highly significant. The snake is a symbol of
"irreconcilable opposites" (Hillman 26), but paradoxically offers a way to bridge the two
sides of the brain because it is draped across the separating wall. Livingstone’s snake is
not the oroboros, “the serpent curled with its tail in its mouth, forming the perfect circle,
or female O, or zero – the cycle of all, and of nothing” (Sjöö 62). While the snake
represents a connection between the two sides, it does not represent complete unity or
cosmic harmony. He "nears it stealthily” (line 46), then steps “across hesitantly” (line
53). The idea of synthesis is also present in Livingstone’s perception of the setting: at the
start of this stanza the seas on either side of the wall “appear” (line 43) to be flowing
towards “one point” (line 44). This represents a possible synthesis of the scientific and
the intuitive (or the artificial and the natural) as does the literal point that the snake is, in
fact, an electrical cable. This synthesis is further explored through the image of the snake.
The head of the “python” is "down left” of the wall (in the sea which represents the
rational scientist) and its tail is “down right” (line 45) in the sea of intuition.
The final stanza describes in detail the poet’s “dissonance and loss” through the
imagery of wind and discordant sound. He is stranded and exposed to the elements with
no way back. The objective tone of the narration by the scientist paradoxically adds to the
feeling of desperation. He is “fearfully exposed” (line 59), but there is no turning back
(lines 58-9). His exposure is emphasized by the waters which churn “far beneath” (line
60) and the “vaulting” gale-force winds: a trope for chaos, or more specifically, creativity
become chaotic. Disembodied auditory imagery emphasises his dislocation: irredeemable
“torn tatters of melody from one side / their strident voices screaming opposite” (lines 62-
3). The “strident voices” of the gales mirror his own “incoherent” thoughts. This
opposition of sounds does come together “at times” (line 64) but this is of little use for