Within the W.H. Hudson classic Green Mansions, a haunting work that happened to be the first classic I ever read as a child and it instilled in me a great love of reading and the power of the golden word - the author uses the words "ignis fatuus." Hmm. Those are the same words used by Bukowski to name what I feel is one of his greatest poems on the nature of death in life. Here's what I found...
From the dictionary:
Ignus fatuus, sometimes written as ignis fatuus, is the name given to a phosphorescent type of light that is sometimes observed hovering over swampy ground. The word can also be used to mean an illusion or something that deludes or misleads.
Ignis fatuus is taken from the Medieval Latin words "ignis" meaning fire and "fatuus" meaning foolish (fool's fire).
The phenomenon of Ignis Fatuus is known by a number of names including friar's lantern, will-o'-the-wisp and jack-o'-lantern. The reasons attributed for Ignis fatuus are that swampy grounds, bogs, marshes etc release marsh gas or methane as a result of bacteriological action etc. It is believed that the gases so accumulated may at times spontaneously combust.
The phenomenon of Ignus fatuus has also entered into folklore, probably because earlier man could not completely understand why it occurred.
Bukowski talks about death beyond the physical - what real death in life is, perhaps as something illusory or not what we normally think it is - and he happens to recite Ignus Fatuus (the two words being atmospheric within themselves and casting a spell) on At Terror Street and Agony Way. The poem is a favorite because of the combined depth of Bukowski's words and the power of his great performance as if death was whispering in his ears what it truly is.
Ignus Fatuus.
From the dictionary:
Ignus fatuus, sometimes written as ignis fatuus, is the name given to a phosphorescent type of light that is sometimes observed hovering over swampy ground. The word can also be used to mean an illusion or something that deludes or misleads.
Ignis fatuus is taken from the Medieval Latin words "ignis" meaning fire and "fatuus" meaning foolish (fool's fire).
The phenomenon of Ignis Fatuus is known by a number of names including friar's lantern, will-o'-the-wisp and jack-o'-lantern. The reasons attributed for Ignis fatuus are that swampy grounds, bogs, marshes etc release marsh gas or methane as a result of bacteriological action etc. It is believed that the gases so accumulated may at times spontaneously combust.
The phenomenon of Ignus fatuus has also entered into folklore, probably because earlier man could not completely understand why it occurred.
Bukowski talks about death beyond the physical - what real death in life is, perhaps as something illusory or not what we normally think it is - and he happens to recite Ignus Fatuus (the two words being atmospheric within themselves and casting a spell) on At Terror Street and Agony Way. The poem is a favorite because of the combined depth of Bukowski's words and the power of his great performance as if death was whispering in his ears what it truly is.
Ignus Fatuus.