Life-and-Destruction                                                            Page 31

As the symbol of the snake unites a multitude of meanings in itself so the

differences between the conscious and the unconscious, in poetry and in

spirituality, need not be seen as oppositional but as two parts of a single coin.

In "Shadow" (C.P.p.292), Judith Wright returns to themes of the conscious and

the unconscious, together with the theme of the enemy who enters "to master"

her:

I stood to watch the sun

slip over the world's edge

its white-hot temples burning

where earth and vapour merge.

The shadow at my feet rose upward silently;

announced that it was I;

entered to master me.

The sun is like a god returning to his temple which is burning in the fiery light

of the dying day where "earth and vapour merge". The sun-god is the god of

fire that burns for both destruction and transformation. The merging of solid

earth with insubstantial vapour is another image of the conscious and the

unconscious. This is brought out even more clearly in the shadow lying like

vapour at the feet of a solid human body. It rises up, not like the snake to

strike but to "announce", to make an unchallengeable statement, and to take

possession: "...it was I". The poem goes on to reflect on "time that falls

away" and on the:

self that vanishes

till eyes stare outward blind

on one invading darkness

that brims from earth to mind,

This time it is not the enemy who vanishes but the self: "till eyes stare outward

blind / on one invading darkness". These eyes somewhat resemble the eye of

the dead snake in "The Killer": "his icy glance / turns outward, clear and dead".

But here the darkness is not of death. It is a living "invading" force that flows

into the subject's "imprisoned, separate... isolating light".