There’s something about the scent of fields drenched in the light of a descending sun.

I’m not certain if I’ve made my appreciation, my embarrassing fandom for Sting’s music clear yet. At first, I started with loving The Police, but then there were so many literary allusions in the song lyrics Sting wrote both with the band & independently. I adored the fact that he taught poetry at a private school in England, that he used poetic allusion. His work urged me read books like Lolita and The Sheltering Sky. I even developed more of an interest in mythology, Tennyson, Marlowe, even Shakespeare. He definitely made being an English major cool.

His albums Ten Summoner’s Tales & The Soul Cages were ones I’d listen to, over & over & over & over… (*hits repeat*)… again. They still bring me back to days of youth & impetuous infatuation.

A field of gold.

One song from the Ten Summoner’s Tales that really soothes me is “Fields of Gold.” The lyrics are pure poetry:

“You’ll remember me when the west wind moves upon the fields of barley
You’ll forget the sun in his jealous sky as we walk in fields of gold.”
– Sting

A reference to Zephyrus and his love for Flora, the lyric ties to Romantic poetry as the use of nature is the key to creating beauty, here with the wind. We also remember from my earlier post that Helios (sun god) spurned Clytie, who then became the sunflower forever gazing & unable to reach the one she loves. Masculine forces of wind & sun become the focus of passion for feminized flowers & blossoming plant life. Another tie there to seasons & the myth of Demeter & Proserpine, & the creation of seasons.

There is also such an abundance of warm, earthy imagery that conjures thoughts of Pablo Neruda’s love sonnets. And we know Sting appreciates Neruda’s poetry from his reading “Morning” on the Il Postino soundtrack.

The golden hues of grain growing.

If we look at the imagery depicted in that specific poem “Morning” by Neruda, the one Sting narrates, we can see a commonality. The image of the warm female body as a grain of wheat.

“Naked you are simple as one of your hands;
Smooth, earthy, small, transparent, round.
You’ve moon-lines, apple pathways
Naked you are slender as a naked grain of wheat.”
– Pablo Neruda

The words “earthy” & “wheat” from the speaker towards his beloved reinforce the masculine desire, one echoed even in the biblical Song of Solomon. (I used to love reading the Song of Solomon as a child, so beautiful did I find its lines.)

If we look at Book 4:

“Awake, O north wind, and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.”

Again, the wind. Again, the blossoming plant life that yields harvest, fruit. There exists a desire that is captured in Sting’s song, which repeats like a gentle refrain the passion of the wind:

“See the west wind move like a lover so upon the fields of barley.
Feel her body rise when you kiss her mouth among the fields of gold.”
– Sting

A rich landscape, illuminated.

These rich images of wind & garden & fruit further emphasize a historical literary tradition that Sting references repeatedly in throughout his catalog of music. This is only but one example of the kind of lyrical richness to be mined when you hear his lyrics.

And thus I gravitated and still do gravitate towards his writing (even song lyrics) rich with allusion, allusion which challenges me to dig deeper to find profound meaning. Introverts tend to enjoy the hunt for a deeper depth, the probing to find a more meaningful truth. Perhaps that’s why so many of us are writers.

The quiet reverie that such ponderance requires becomes a gift of that search of time & soul.

Summer afternoon.