Themes of Death in The Twelfth Day

I found Rosanna Warren’s “The Twelfth Day” to be an intriguing and powerful poem. I was particularly struck by her ability to capture integral elements of the Iliad’s exploration of death in such concise and punchy verse.

Consider, for example, that Hector’s face “vaulting / through gravel and blood / blends strangely / with the features / of that other / one: the Beloved”. This may be interpreted in two ways, with both interpretations yielding an interesting reflection of ideas expressed in Homer’s poem. On the first interpretation, Patroclus is the beloved in question (i.e. the beloved of Achilles). Thus, Hector’s body is shown resemble Patroclus’, conveying the Iliadic notion that death does not discriminate, but rather is all-encompassing in war. In death these two men are the same, and by extension they demonstrate that death treats equally Greeks and Trojans, victors and victims, etc.

For the second interpretation, we might consider Achilles to be the beloved in question. This way of reading the verse is founded on his status (seeing as he was the younger man) as the beloved in a potential erastes/eromenos relationship with Patroclus. On this reading, Hector’s features resemble Achilles’, reinforcing the notion that Achilles dies in some strong sense after Patroclus is slain. This theme of Achilles’ deathlike state is expressed at other points in Warren’s poem as well, such as the line “rigor / mortis in the / mortal grip”.