The Argo Goes West

30, Siren's Hills, part 1

Melody Hills, Texas.

There has been no sound in Margaret Walker's world since she was born. She was deaf. Her father, a banker, hired a teacher from the American School for the Deaf in West Hartford, Connecticut, to privately educate her. Her parents spoiled Margaret because they felt sorry for giving birth to her in such a body. But Miss Hunter, the tutor, didn't so. She trained her thoroughly not only in studies but also in manners and common sense. In addition, she made Margaret read many humanitarian books, such as Tolstoy. Margaret learned about the world through reading. Margaret, who has never been outside, let alone traveled, has traveled to various places in the books. Poetry was one of the things she didn't like. It seemed to her that it was just a row of sweet words like candy. Ten years ago, Miss Hunter urged her to attend the Horace Mann School in Boston. It was for Margaret, who couldn't speak, to undergo speech training. Under the guidance of Principal Sarah Frei, Margaret took speech lessons. At this time, Margaret met a girl from Alabama. A girl named Helen Keller. Not only was she dead and dumb, she was also blind. Margaret reluctantly joined the class at the request of her teacher, but Helen volunteered to take lessons because she wanted to speak. Through Miss Fuller, Margaret asked Helen why she wanted to speak. Helen replied: Because I want to read poetry aloud. Poetry has a beautiful cadence like music. I want to enjoy it. I want to read not only English poetry, but also Goethe and Racine. For that reason, I want to study German and French.

Margaret also knew that poetry had a meter. But the printed type had no accents. So she read poetry, thinking only about the meaning of the sentence. She tried reading Shakespeare, checking the accent of each word in a dictionary. When the dull sentences took on iambic pentameter rhymes, she felt as if the letters sprouted wings and began to dance. Margaret was instantly enamored with the game, reading Emily Dickinson and others aloud. It was music for Margaret. Music that even deaf people can enjoy.

That night, Margaret read poetry as usual before going to bed. "To Helen" by Edgar Allan Poe.

Helen, thy beauty is to me

Like those Nicean barks of yore

Nicaea is the name of a city in Asia Minor in ancient Greece. Helen would be the beautiful Helen who opened the ends of the Trojan War. However, Margaret remembered the innocent face of Helen Keller, whom she had only met once at school for the deaf, and was amused herself.

She read the continuation of the poem.

Lo, in yon brilliant window-niche

Suddenly it became bright outside the window. Margaret put the book down on the desk, got up from her chair, and walked over to the window. The house across the street was on fire.

"Oh no, it's a fire."

She noticed that the potted herb leaves on the bay window were trembling with the glass.

- uu - uu - uu - uu - uu -

- uu - uu - - uu - uu -

Margaret knew what the prosody was. It was an elegiac couplet. Margaret opened the window, wondering if someone was chanting out loud. Margaret's room was on the second floor, overlooking the street, and was well lit at night by the flames of the fire. Margaret spread out her palms to protect herself from the leaping sparks and looked outside. Something unbelievable was happening in the street. People were rushing into the burning house one after another. That was not all. Some shoot with a pistol to their temples, others cut their own throats with a dagger, and others hang themselves with ropes attached to gas lamps. Residents of the town took their own lives in their own ways.

"What? What is going on?"

Worried about her family and teachers, Margaret rushed out of the room. The panes and herb leaves still continued to enjoy the ancient rhyme.