Time, the Huntsman

In late 1915, Patience Worth took time out of her busy schedule to dictate the poetic allegory, Time, The Huntsman. On the surface, the poem is about a Huntsman’s love-hate relationship with the Seasons, and the environmental changes this relationship brings about. On a deeper level, the poem depicts a struggle between sun-time and moon-time, two foundational archetypes. The French philosopher Bergson argued that time is real (i.e. is a life enhancing influence). Worth seems to be telling us in this poem that Linear and Cyclical times are real, and where they interface, closure and renewal rule the day. Haunting the poem is the White Goddess, a muse made famous by the poet/author Robert Graves decades later in his book White Goddess.