Rudyard Kipling wrote this poem, and while I really enjoy it I don’t understand it at all. Is Rudyard Kipling writing science fiction, or an allegory, or what?
Hmm. I’ve read a bit of Kipling, but not that one. It does seem kinda science fiction-y, with a whiff of “Thus Spake Zarathustra” too. Not quite sure what he was driving at, but I’d guess he was talking about finding a soulmate who will stand by you through thick and thin, and will only leave when you insist, and that insistence will be a kind of noble sacrifice. But it’s more about a semi-mystical, galaxy-spanning mood than anything.
My two cents’ worth.
Geez, it’s practically transparent. The author & Helen got laid, and nobody found out.
It’s not so much science-fictiony as mythological/occult.
The narrative voice is that of Simon Magus, and the crux of the poem is the hermetic idea that jealous angels divided androgynous (and divine) man into opposing sexes. (God had created andogynous man in his image, and they turned this trick when he was looking the other way.) Opposing sexes have a basic drive to reintegrate, and their desire leads to physical reproduction, which further and further dilution of the divine nature.
Simon Magus put out the idea that salvation is acquired by spiritually reintegrating the male and female, and the whole thing came to him when he really clicked with a chick named Helen, in a platonic way. She was the authentic other half of himself. Most of the time, we have a confused to desire to physically reunite with some other soul’s other half.
The appearance of the physical universe is created by this artificial interplay of opposites, and the way to escape from the constant repetition of physical existence is to eliminate all desire and reintegrate your psyche’s bisexual qualities. (This involves using modes of perception, thought, and feeling which are normally dormant in equal conjunction with those that are “dominant” for your physical sex.)
So the point of Kipling’s poem is a bit of a poke at that idea. If reality is illusory, and sex is a trap set for us at the dawn of protohistory by scheming angels… well, the physical universe ain’t so bad, and there is something to be said for sex, when you get right down to it. So stuff the teleological revelations and divine knowledge that are promised if you turn your back on that – I’m gonna get married, have me some kids, and picnic in the park – and the other lost half of my soul? I hope she’s having as good a time as I am.
A bit of an arcane joke, but Masons are funny that way.
Another thing that may require a bit of explanation:
The dichotomy in gnostic systems is “Solar/ Rational /Male” vs.“Lunar/ Intuitive/ Female.”
The ideal is a balance. (ie; a totally rational mind misses half the picture and is unbalanced, and a totally intuitive mind misses half the picture is unbalanced.)
So the poem describes a sort of irrational vision – and relief at the return to rationality.
This is a pretty common theme in mystical poetry.
For a comic take on it, see Lewis Carroll’s “Three Voices.”