Can you help me?

[priatel]

Hello,

Herunder the poem Look! of Stevie Smith

Look!
I am becalmed in a deep sea
And give signals, but they are not answered.
And yet I see ships in the distance
And give signals, but they do not answer.

Am I a pariah ship, or a leper
To be shunned reasonably?
Or did I commit a crime long ago
And have forgotten, but they remember?

Into the dark night into darker I move
And the lights of the ships are not seen now
But instead there is a phosphorescence from the water
That light shines, and now I see

Low down, as I bend my hand into the water
A fish so transparent in his inner organs
That I know he comes from the earthquake bed
Five miles below where I sail, I sail.

All his viscera are transparent, his eyes globule on stalks
Is he dead? Or alive and only languid? Now
Into my hand he comes, the travelling creature,
Not from the sea-bed only but from generations,
Faint because of the lighter pressure,
Fainting, a long fish, stretched out.

So we meet, and for a moment
I forget my solitariness.
But then I should like to show him,
And who shall I show him to?

Somebody, in a game in my country, has used the words of this poem for describing a similar entity and I need to find it.

As I am not familiar at all with english poesy, I would like you help me by indicating what has called S.Smith "becalmed ship".

If there is no name to place on it, can you indicate a generic one such as
Nuclear power plant, bathyscaphe, bridge, church, hospital, wreck, a.s.o

But I think that S. Smith has created this poem thinking to something precise.

Thank you

Priatel

Bulgaria

[BenJohnson]

The poem itself is descibing the lonliness of a person like a ship in the middle of the sea alone. The phrase 'becalmed ship' refers to sailing ships, when there is no wind a sailing ship can not move and is called becalmed.

[priatel]

Thanks for your reply.

But I am not looking for the symbolism of the poem (which is what you say) but about one "thing" (building, construction or something else) that Stevie Smith has used as model.

An example: it can be a nuclear power plant like Tchernobil or Windscale after a major nuclear accident.
For that reason ships around are not approaching and the plant is banned for eternity.

Or it can be a tomb.
Or a wreck, or a ruin.
Or something else.

And it's exactly what I have to find.

Because the creator of the game has said that he has used this description for a similar object in Bulgaria.

Priatel

[BenJohnson]

Maybe a lighthouse? Stands still and sends signal, ships stay away from it. Sends light through the darkness.

http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/lighthouse/bgr.htm

[priatel]

Yes, may be

I had already thought to a lighthouse because of the danger when approaching it and it's in the sea above abysses, built on bed rocks.

But, can a specialist on S. Smith confirm that it was to a lighthouse that she was thinking when she wrote the poem?

Ben, can you continue and give ideas?

Thanks

Priatel

[priatel]

Ben,

Please note that it's not for something in Bulgaria, it's for a game in France.

Priatel

[BenJohnson]

Another suggestion on the same theme would be a lightship since Stevie Smith is clearly describing a ship.