The third ode to Anansi is possibly the most beautiful whilst being also relatively straightforward. The poet enquires of the god if he still dwells here and the god answers that he does. Speaking in poetic verse Anansi gives an account of his poisonous bite as analogous to being lost in the world of myth/story. The question is of course raised as to whether Seranoga means that stories are genuinely dangerous -recall the fourth ode ‘words are scarcely meant as fun’ or at the very least acknowledged as powerful. To Anansi though, to be lost in the tale is to be awake i.e. the listeners become awake when they bitten and thus are presumably not before.
The sonnet like structure of the poem ends with Anansi’s epithet, which he says belongs to him ‘sorely’: ‘When sailing do not forget thy crew’. This intimation of inter-subjectivity, which clearly deliberates rhymes ‘crew’ with ‘you’ (intimations of alterity and society) itself is used to recall Seranoga’s obsession with the sea. But why is this ‘sorely true’? There is of course no definite answer to this question but we might speculate Anansi’s epithet indicates the fragility of existence and that stories and hence awakenness are only possible in society. It is sorely true because, tales as contingent upon society are as fragile as it is i.e. subject to the vicissitudes of existence.
The Seranoga Archive 