NOIR POETRY 365 DAY 004 | POEMS #005 & #006 [DAGGER OF THE MIND I & II]

 

Today’s poems are both titled “Dagger of the Mind.”

The initial inspiration for DAGGER OF THE MIND II was the title of a noir novel by poet and writer KENNETH FEARING. 

The expression itself comes from Macbeth’s soliloquy in William Shakespeare’s work The Tragedy of Macbeth (sometimes referred to as The Scottish Play), arguably one of the best proto-noir stories ever written:

Is this a dagger which I see before me,

The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible

To feeling as to sight? or art thou but

A dagger of the mind, a false creation,

Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?

I see thee yet, in form as palpable

As this which now I draw.

     - The Tragedy of Macbeth, Act II, Scene I

Although created in the early 17th century, The Tragedy of Macbeth contains many (if not all) of the archetypes and elements of noir fiction: a Corrupted Protagonist, a Femme Fatale, Henchmen, a Perfect Crime Gone Wrong, Doom and Fatalism, Psychological Decay, Chiaroscuro reflected in Macbeth’s obsession with light and shadows, and a foggy claustrophobic atmosphere that has Noir Eternal Night written all over it.

“Quietus,” on the other hand, used in DAGGER OF THE MIND I, came from today’s #vss365 word prompt on X/Twitter. 

The word “quietus” was also made popular by Shakespeare in Hamlet’s uber-famous monologue “To be or not to be” - “When he himself might his quietus make / With a bare bodkin?” - and that is where the inspiration for “hope to / my quietus make” came from. 

Hamlet, of course, is another play we could argue is the ultimate proto-noir story and (as some of you may know) I have happily gone down that rabbit hole already:

THE REST IS SILENCE: A JAZZ AGE NOIR

Thank you for reading today’s installment of Noir Poetry 365.

Find out more about this project >>