The Sleep of My Lions - Douglas Livingstone

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The Sleep of My Lions A lion is normally associated with bravery, valour and strength (en.wikipedia.org). From the start of the poem a sinister tone forms with the usage of the word “sleep” in combination with “lions” which suggests a hidden promise as to what will happen if these “lions” were to wake up. According to http://dictionary.reference.com the word “the” indicates something specific in a sentence and the word “my” is a pronoun used to indicate possession. The title therefore suggests that somebody specific’s lions are being referred too and they are currently asleep. O Mare Atlanticum, Mare Arabicum et Indicum, Oceanus Orientalis, Oceanus Aethiopicus The first four lines of the beginning stanza are written in Latin and can be translated as follows: Oh, Atlantic Ocean, Arabian and Indian Ocean, Eastern Ocean and Red Sea (answers.yahoo.com). Latin is an ancient language and generates the feeling that the reader is exposed to something very old in the poem. This point is further enforced by the placement of the Latin words in italics. Further attention is drawn to the relationship between these oceans – that they may all be interconnected and part of something bigger – by the poetic techniques being used: assonance in the rhyming of the words “Atlanticum” and “Indicum” and also the words “Orientalis” and “Aethiopicus”; in addition the commas are strategically placed to create the visual imagery of the land divisions (pauses) that prevents a continuously flow of water across the planet. Given the concepts that will be discussed in the next four lines it will be noteworthy to mention that Latin also has a religion connotation due to it having been used by the Roman Catholic Church for centuries. save me from civilization my pastory from further violation. For better clarification of the above-mentioned four lines it is important
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