brainstorming for "hosts of the air" title page

Greetings folks! I haven't picked up the TTP for a couple weeks so it is fantastic to actually have some imagery to share yet again. A good hour + was passed at the pizza parlor early this afternoon. It's amazing how much can get done when forced to leave the house. Add a table made for four (seating just lil' ole' me) to spread papers out on, an endless supply of diet coke, and a pizza buffet of cheesy bread sticks; presto -instant inspiration! Today I tackled the poetic conundrum that is The Host of the Air.

The funny thing about Host of the Air is that it was brought into TTP late in the game as a replacement for Rose of the World. Drawn in by Air's beauty, I felt that surely this was a sensible replacement. Mythological symbolism, possible alchemical symbolism, religious symbolism, people who were other that what they seam- this piece has it all! Funnily enough, this has also been one of the most frustrating poems to brainstorm until today. Perhaps it was the cinnamon sticks or perhaps it was the cheesy bread, but inspiration hit today and it consisted on one key idea ... keep it simple. Host of the Air has so many exciting ideas that, like usual, I wanted to do all of it and ended up finding that this overload was causing me to do nothing at all. Therefore for the title page I focused a few key elements:

1) Brigid the goddess/saint was the woman Yeats refers to as bride and is the subject of this poem.

2) Yeats constantly refers to Bride's dim long hair

3) Brigid the goddess was a goddess of fire (I found this in further reading and will discuss it in some detail later this weekend.)

4) The most recognizable symbol of Brigid the saint is Brigid's Cross. (pictured at end of post)

I then combined all of these into one image that will be sketched on Host of the Air's title page. I have not figured out the placement of the title itself yet, but that will come later. For now here is brainstorm #1 for Air's title page. Along other lines, this was a major breakthrough, because at the moment there is only one other title page sketch - which incidentally is also of a woman. With two of the six transcribed poems being represented by human figures, there clearly is a trend that must continue through the rest of the pieces for continuity sake. We shall see how that works out. For now, enjoy the first Host of the Air title page brainstorm with details. It is clear that there is cleaning up/refiguring that needs doing, but for now I'm thrilled to have this much.