Gustave Doré, Don Quixote tilting with a windmill (1863)
I’ve always loved this short poem by my father, which imagines the man from La Mancha as someone who liberates windmills from their dull everyday existences. By contrast, Sancho Panza, like Dickens’ Gradgrind, is portrayed as a scorching reality principle that withers up the imagination.
Let This Be My Hour
By Scott Bates
Let this be my hour
Sancho Panza: the wind is up
my arms are aching for your flour
My battle never has been won
since chivalry’s finest flower
withered in your sun
O gaseous ball: my knight
is gone to the asylum and no one comes
Sancho Panza come and fight
Incidentally, several years ago a former student (Matt Sargent) examined the significance of the windmills in Don Quixote for a senior project written under my supervision. I learned then that windmills were cutting edge technology, very early heralds of the industrial and technological revolutions. In taking them on as he dreams of old romances, Quixote is fighting the modernism of his day.
So if you are feeling dull and listless, pick up a classic. Better to be a giant than a windmill.
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3 Comments
Good Morning Mr. Bates, I love your Fathers Poem. Where I live in Illinios there are wind mills, and people don’t like them. I think they are O.K. if they are used for what they say they are. They are giants, lol. I’ll have to get some pictures near on to see who’s bigger, lol. I also see a lot of the older ones that no longer work. It’s very interesting indeed, like human artifacts no one cared for, so this makes me think that these modern ones may be abandoned one day, and become great eye soars.
I am currently reading Washinton Irvings Sketch-Book published old book from1878.. Good day
Regarding Windmills:
Alternative Energy Revolution
I sometimes wish I could see the world from Don Quixote’s point of view, without the omniscience of the narrator to put context to his (and Sancho’s) actions. That is to see the world as he sees it, dragons, damsels and all.
Spoken like a true fantasist, Kristian. I always felt disappointed at the end of fantasy novels (say Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, or House on Pooh Corner) when we are thrown out of the fantasy world and returned to our own. By the way, it’s not only the narrator who mediates Quixote’s vision. In the second volume, there are characters who have read the first volume and who help Quixote and Sancho believe their fantasies are coming true. They are as enthralled with the fantasy as you are.