The Influence of Ovid's Metamorphoses on Longley's 'Ivory and Water'

This essay provides a detailed analysis of Michael Longley's poem 'Ivory and Water' and its relationship to Ovid's Metamorphoses. The paper begins by establishing Ovid's significance as a poet and the key themes of change and transformation in his work, specifically within the context of Metamorphoses. It then explores Longley's classicist approach and how 'Ivory and Water' responds to the themes presented by Ovid. The essay delves into the Pygmalion story, highlighting the importance of stone, beauty, and the connection between art and life. It examines Longley's portrayal of transformation, focusing on the changing forms and emotional impact. The conclusion summarizes the influence of Ovid's Metamorphoses on Longley's work, emphasizing the themes of metamorphosis, the human form, and the dangers of idealistic perfection. The essay also provides references to supporting literature, including interviews and academic papers.

1
How Ivory and Water responds to Ovid’s Metamorphoses
Ovid is considered one of the greatest poets and his works continue to inspire modern
poetry and poets. Metamorphoses is a major work by the poet which is based on the themes of
change and transformation. Michael Longley, in an interview1, mentions how he is inspired by
Ovid and how he is obsessed with the way things change over time. The paper investigates how
Longley’s “Ivory and Water” responds to Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
The keynote of Metamorphoses written by the Roman poet Ovid is the variety in subject
matter and the tonality. The narrative epic poem is inspired by the creation of the world 2. The
model of Ovid's Metamorphoses belongs to the Hellenistic context and a genre of poems known
as collective poems. Ovid treats twenty-one stories in Metamorphoses, and his style of poetry is
far more ambitious than seen in any poetry before 3. It remains one of the best known classical
works from medieval writers. Metamorphoses describe the creation and history of the world and
are based on Greek mythology. There is some sort of transformation within each story that links
them together. Ovid deals with how the original formless matter gradually changes into various
shapes that developed the visible world in the first few hundred lines of the poem. Later he
focuses on human beings and How the forms changed into new diverse bodies of plants, animals,
rocks, flowers, constellations and so on.4 In his poem, Ovid finds several matters for hundreds of
metamorphoses.
1 Peter McDonald, An Interview with Michael Longley (1998),
< http://poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/record8921.html?id=12172>
2 Galinsky, p.1.
3 Galinsky, p.2.
4 Anderson, p.7.

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Michael Longley has long been seen as a classicist poet. His classicist references can be
found in several of his works that demonstrate an engagement with classical texts like Ovid's
Metamorphoses or the Illiad. Although Longley is known to follow the classicist traditions of
control, conservation, and conservatism, Ovid shows a disruptive manner from this tradition5. In
Ovid's Metamorphoses, there is a tone of a neat conclusion that does not hide the emotions
completely or leave it untapped. Michael Longley’s contribution strikes a note of poignancy, and
he resolves the delicate ambivalence of Ovid ingot an ultimate bitter sweetness, as the dream of
his statue melts away into water6. The theme of metamorphosis is more apparent in Ovid's
Metamorphoses, which is noted for its narrative and descriptive qualities.
Ovid’s intention in Metamorphoses is to show how bodies change and thus
transformation is the central theme in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. These changes relate to nature, but
the most prevalent transformation is into stone. Thus, there are anomalous metamorphoses in
Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The importance of stone is put forth throughout the Metamorphoses
with the Pygmalion story. The same obsession and transformation can be seen in Longley’s
‘Ivory and Water” is about a woman who changes into a fountain and the woman who changes
into ivory. Thus the poem reminds one of the transformations of stone in the Metamorphoses.
One can see the relationship between beauty, love, life, and stone are all connected. In the poem,
the male dream fantasy deconstructs gently and slowly.
Ovid depicts how Pygmalion rejects the body of women shaped by nature to craft his
own ideal version. His statue achieves an unattainable beauty that is impossible for any mortal to
attain and thus reaches the level of a goddess. Pygmalion loves the perfection of the statue of the
5 Broom, p.94.
6 Hardie, p.160.

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woman he has created and caresses her body just like actual flesh. His relationship with his work
of art turns sexual in nature.
“He would often move his hands to test and touch it, could this be flesh or was it ivory
only? No it could not be ivory. He kisses, he fancies, she returns, he speaks to her, hold her,
believes his fingers almost leave an imprint on her limbs, and fears to bruise her.” 7
The same treatment can be seen in Longley’s ‘Ivory and Water.8’ The poem examines the
way things come and go and change with time, both imaginatively and emotionally. The
opening lines of his poetry speak about the perfect specimen of a woman in ivory. There are a
delicacy and strength in those carefully constructed lyrics. He warns the lonely bachelor about
the risk of falling in love with perfection. As a lover, he may imagine the cold ivory statue” to
warm and blush like a real woman or feel “her veins pulse” under his thumb. However, if she
“breaks out into a cold sweat,” she will dissolve completely not water. The dreams will come to
an end as nothing lasts forever, and the lonely bachelor will have nothing to hold in his arms.
The dream dissolves as the woman of ivory dissolves.
Michael Longley ‘Ivory and Water’ responds to Ovid’s Metamorphoses by showing the
transformation and change connected with human forms and emotions. The story of Pygmalion
and the woman in ‘Ivory and Water’ focus on the importance of stone and its relation to life,
beauty, and art. Humans are created out of stone and dust of the earth and will change back into
where they came from. Both the poets emphasize the importance of stone and its relationship
with beauty and creation. It is emphasized that the idea of perfection does not exist in the real
7 Mitchell, p. 291.
8 Parcourir Les Collections, Ivory and Water (1994), < https://www.persee.fr/doc/irlan_0183-
973x_1994_num_19_1_1187>

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world and can be found only in art and imagination. Longley warns of the danger of getting
imaginatively and emotionally paralyzed because of thsoe transformations in his interview9.
To conclude on the above discussion, Longley dwells on the idea of stone taking a human
form and how the creator falls in love with his creation because of its idealistic perfection. The
idea of connecting art to stone and life can be seen as an influence of Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
These depictions of the human form in the statue is referenced from the story of Pygmalion in
Metamorphoses. How the perfect woman made out of ivory gets metamorphosed onto a flesh-
like human being and alter into formless water shows a transformation of form, shape and
desires. Metamorphoses and change is part of life and not just in shapes and forms but also of the
thoughts and emotions.
9 Peter McDonald, An Interview with Michael Longley (1998),
< http://poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/record8921.html?id=12172>

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References
Karl Galinsky, Ovid's Metamorphoses: An Introduction to the Basic Aspects, (University of
California Press, 1975), pp.1-285.
Philip Hardie, ‘The Cambridge Companion to Ovid, Cambridge University Press, 1.1 (2002), 1-
408.
Parcourir Les Collections, Ivory and Water (1994), < https://www.persee.fr/doc/irlan_0183-
973x_1994_num_19_1_1187> [accessed 1 Dec 2018].
Peter McDonald, An Interview with Michael Longley (1998),
< http://poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/record8921.html?id=12172> [accessed 20 Dec
2018].
Patricia Salzman-Mitchell, “A Whole Out of Pieces: Pygmalion’s Ivory Statue in Ovid’s
Metamorphoses.” Arethusa. 41, (2008),291-311.
Sarah Broom, ‘Learning about Dying: Mutability and the Classics in the Poetry of Michael
Longley.” New Hibernia Review / Iris Éireannach Nua, 6.1 (2002), 94-112.
William S. Anderson, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Books 1-5, (University of Oklahoma Press, 1997),
pp.1- 578.