Penny Dreadfuls, 1923 · page 84 of 116
The Taking of Helen by John Masefield — page 84: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Analysis This is a page of running prose and poetry from what appears to be a narrative work titled "The Taking of Helen" (shown at page 72). The text consists of dialogue between an old man and someone named Nireus, discussing the nature of human fate—whether it involves love, conquest, or contemplation. Their conversation shifts into philosophical territory, touching on the relationship between fate, folly, and love. The page concludes with a poetic passage describing celestial and maritime imagery: planets, sea creatures, and flames reflecting on water. The tone is literary and allegorical rather than sensational.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
72 THE TAKING OF HELEN we sing what is in our minds, which, has nothing to do with them, but with the fate of man.” “Nobody knows what the fate of man is,’’ the old man said. : “It is to try and suffer and try and perish,’’ Nireus said. “When I was young,” the old man said, ‘‘I thought it was to love and to go with companions, pulling kings from their thrones, in these cities. But that is the youth of man, not the fate. I think the fate of man is to stand on a sea-beach and see the planets rising, and talk folly.” “Wisdom is not far from folly,” “an said. ‘Fate is very near to folly,” the old man said. “And that is why the blood planet goes with the folly planet. A lover has always a dog at his heels, even Fate.” “The dogs of a ote have been hunting here to-day,” Nireus said. “Not hunting,” the old man said, “but gathering to a hunt, a great hunt, which will put all beauty and pride and skill into the mud.” Those globes of light, the planets, lifted free, And shook their glittering hair upon the sea, The inner fires of the water glowed, Flame rippled where the dolphin took his road, Flame pointed where the surfaced shark was finning, Flame shivered in the bays from wind beginning. aK * oe = ae ECORNICLOOOKS .E@