The Fatal Sisters. An Ode by Thomas Gray

"The Fatal Sisters" (left, title page of William Blake's imaginative illustrations to the poem) was written in 1761 and first published in Gray's collected Poems (1768). Gray composed his late imitations of Old Norse and Welsh verse ("The Fatal Sisters", "The Descent of Odin", "The Triumphs of Owen") in the context of his projected History of English Poetry, which he spent a decade researching and collecting materials for, but which remained unfinished. As dramatizations of prophetic speech, these later imitations follow on from his earlier compositions ("The Bard" and "The Progress of Poesy", both 1757), and share common themes, such as orality, performance, and poetic voice.¹

Gray based "The Fatal Sisters" largely on a Latin translation of the Old Norse original, which dates back to the 11th century. The poem dramatizes the three sisters' song as a prophetic account of the Battle of Clontarf, fought on 23 Apr. 1014. As an enactment of a prophecy, the poem foregrounds the performative role of both form and content for the process of establishing meaning. The performative nature of the poetic form in "The Fatal Sisters" becomes apparent by paying close attention to sonic, rhetorical, and syntactic phenomena, which can be observed though ECPA's phonological and syntactic analytical layers.

The striking rhythm of the four-beat line, which Gray may have glimpsed in the Old Norse original, plays an important role throughout the poem, signalling that the prophecy can only be understood as song, as a chant-like performance. The heptasyllabic line with its driving, drum-like rhythm "DUM-da DUM-da DUM-da DUM(-da)" (or, metrically spoken, its catalectic trochaic tetrameter +-|+-|+-|+(-)/) evokes the unfolding subject matter of the battle-field. The complete regularity of stanzaic and syntactic alignment further contributes to the successful interplay of form and subject matter as equal players in establishing a coherent meaningful whole.

Another contributing factor to the overall effect is the large number of assonances, consonances, and alliterations in the poem. Dominant alliterative sounds such as /w/ (in the refrain "(Weave the crimson web of war)" in ll. 25 and 36, which culminates in the anaphora of ll. 51/2 "Sisters, weave the web of death; / Sisters, cease, the work is done."), and /s/ (in the final third of the poem, starting l. 39 "Soon their ample sway shall stretch" and ll. 47/8: "Long her strains in sorrow steep, / Strains of immortality!" and culminating in the final stanza with l. 61 "Sisters, hence with spurs of speed:" and l. 63 "Each bestride her sable steed.") provide additional internal coherence.

ECPA's integrated display of core analytical layers not only allows for insights on each of these levels, but, more importantly, also prompts the closer examination of their interrelatedness over time. This sketch of some of the more prominant prosodic and rhetorical features may thus serve as a starting point for further investigation.

(AH)