Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Mina Loy’s "Faun Fare" is a dazzling and elusive meditation on sexuality, identity, and the modern reinterpretation of ancient myth. Through fragmented syntax, shifting registers, and a wry, ironic tone, Loy reimagines the faun—a creature of classical mythology associated with untamed virility, pursuit, and seduction—as a figure transformed by modernity, urbanity, and shifting gender dynamics. In this poem, the faun is no longer the predatory pursuer of nymphs but instead a participant in the ambiguous, performative, and commodified rituals of contemporary sexuality. The faun’s power is not in dominance but in adaptation, its historical wildness repurposed for the smooth, choreographed social dances of cocktail parties, nightclubs, and cosmopolitan eroticism.

The opening lines, "Surreptitious fanfare of unadams / amingle with ouradams," establish the poem’s playful, cryptic tone. The phrase "unadams" suggests a category outside traditional masculinity—perhaps androgynous, ambiguous, or unclassified—while "ouradams" refers to a more familiar, recognizable male presence. The faun, then, emerges in a setting where identities are fluid, where a "seemingly uniform guesthood" mingles in a space that is ostensibly casual, yet charged with subtle codes of desire. This setting is "the amiable scuffle of cocktail party," an environment of performance, flirtation, and veiled intentions, where erotic energy is displaced into social rituals rather than overt pursuit.

The classical faun—half-man, half-goat—is no longer burdened by his animalistic traits: "Hooveless fauns / their goat-haunch discard to antiquity / their hairiness woven to our worsted." The transformation is complete: the faun has shed his rustic wildness, his cloven hooves and hairy legs, and is now dressed in worsted wool—a material associated with tailored suits and civilized fashion. Instead of dwelling in ancient forests, he moves within the polished world of high society, blending seamlessly into human company. Yet, despite this refinement, traces of his mythic origin remain, subtly influencing the erotic undercurrents of modern social life.

Loy’s exploration of the faun’s evolution is laced with irony: "Most smiles are similes / some almost imperceptibly simper to mystery." This witticism suggests that interactions at the cocktail party are not sincere but constructed, operating through metaphor, artifice, and suggestion rather than genuine emotion. The "imperceptible simper" hints at veiled intentions, at a world where attraction is neither straightforward nor direct, but concealed beneath layers of decorum. This is further reinforced by the next lines: "As were the tail of the eye / lidded with unlisted likings / on ocular trail of invitation to untypical trysts." Here, desire is expressed not through explicit gestures but through sidelong glances, subtle eye movements that trace paths of interest without fully revealing their destinations. The phrase "unlisted likings" suggests attractions that are unacknowledged or outside conventional classifications—perhaps bisexuality, queerness, or unspoken longing.

The faun’s tongue, traditionally associated with lustful pursuit, is also transformed: "a Flitting tongue licking its luminous chops o’er tit-bits of other tastes undue to the apple / the devil delivered to Eve." Instead of devouring female innocence, the faun now savors a variety of forbidden or unexpected tastes—suggesting a shift from rigid heterosexual desire to a broader spectrum of erotic possibilities. The reference to Eve’s apple, long emblematic of the Fall, is subverted here; the faun’s pleasures do not originate in sin but in a rejection of traditional moral constraints.

Loy then introduces the "Neo-Fauns," explicitly differentiating them from their classical predecessors: "Whom no forestal feminae need flee / Altered is the prey." The modern faun does not chase fleeing nymphs, does not participate in the violent abductions of classical mythology. Instead, the dynamic of desire has shifted—no longer predatory, the faun is now part of an urban sexual economy, playing a role in the negotiations of modern courtship. The line "Of priceless use to civilization" is wryly ironic; whereas the old faun represented the raw, untamed force of nature, the new faun is a commodity, valuable not for his wildness but for his ability to integrate into the rituals of city life.

One of the most striking passages frames the faun as an essential accessory to the social aspirations of a certain kind of woman: "You faun are balm to night-club addict / undercover-virgin / for whom Adonis as escort— / obliging her prestige as cosmetics her cheek— / is a must." The faun’s function has shifted from sexual aggressor to a kind of cultural escort, a partner who lends social status rather than threatening virtue. The "undercover-virgin" suggests a woman who outwardly conforms to societal expectations while privately engaging in transgressive behavior. Adonis—another classical figure of idealized masculinity—is here reduced to an accessory, something required for a woman’s prestige much like makeup. The faun, then, is not a figure of dominance but of service, existing to enhance the image of his female companion.

Loy’s vision of the faun as a gender-fluid, sexually ambiguous figure reaches its peak in the lines: "O unisex / Black marketing Amor / with your intermuscular caress of wrestling entry to Felicity’s unsentinelled Arcana." The faun is now explicitly "unisex," a being who disrupts traditional gender binaries. The phrase "Black marketing Amor" suggests a kind of illicit or underground commerce in desire, where love is exchanged in ways that defy normative expectations. "Intermuscular caress" hints at both sensuality and struggle—perhaps an allusion to wrestling, an act that merges aggression with intimacy. The "unsentinelled Arcana" suggests that this erotic realm is unguarded, unrestricted, open to those who dare to explore it.

The poem’s climax addresses the intersection of gender and mythology directly: "You dual yet single / Votaries of Venuseros / As in Athens / So in Manhattan." The faun is both "dual yet single"—embodying male and female, desire and submission, presence and disguise. The fusion of Venus (goddess of love) and Eros (god of passion) suggests a synthesis of feminine and masculine erotic power. By linking ancient Athens to modern Manhattan, Loy implies that this fluidity of identity and desire is not a new phenomenon but a recurring, eternal element of human sexuality.

The closing lines interrogate the nature of Eros itself: "Erosvenus evoes his-her worshipper / or whispers / Eros is ours / for is not Eros forever overall a male?" The poem teeters between declaring Eros a universal, shared force and acknowledging its historical framing as male. The final lines, "As mondial calliopes / Blaring the bisexual norm / foment the Fauns’ allergy to diapers," offer a final, audacious twist. The mention of calliopes—steam organs associated with carnival music—suggests that the modern world, like a chaotic fairground, loudly proclaims the "bisexual norm." This suggests a radical acceptance of fluidity, yet the phrase "foment the Fauns’ allergy to diapers" implies that this acceptance is accompanied by an aversion to traditional roles of reproduction and family life. The faun, once a symbol of unchecked fertility, now resists the constraints of heteronormativity and domestic expectation.

"Faun Fare" is an astonishingly complex, witty, and layered reimagining of myth, gender, and desire. Loy dismantles classical notions of masculinity, replacing them with a modern, ambiguous eroticism that transcends categories. The faun, once the pursuer, is now the pursued; once a figure of wild lust, he is now a refined companion, a subversive figure in a world that markets desire while simultaneously seeking to control it. Through dazzling linguistic play and sharp irony, Loy exposes the shifting landscapes of sexuality, where power and pleasure are no longer dictated by ancient law but negotiated anew in the ever-changing dance of modern life.

Copyright (c) 2025 PoetryExplorer

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!

Other Poems of Interest...