Enthrallment
Alireza Bemanian • Odyssey
تا به مستوفِ عذارش جثه در، مکنون منش حنانه نیست
Chapter IV: Propensities and Guides — epigraph
Enthrallments, allurements, the wholeness, totality,
paroxysms, frenzies and eruptions,
maneuver and dance, include and comprise,
twirl and prance, to pose and confess.
Elixir of spirit, dashes, verve and vim,
the bonds and connections, textures and touches,
humanity, benevolence, knows to tie and link.
Absolutism, the embroiled repression,
despotism, cruelty, and domination,
pretend and profess, silhouettes of doubts
a conferred and allotted, choice and query,
compound and concert, tad and trifle.
The orbit of thought, orders and demands,
serenities, tranquilities, the maze of edicts,
poises and miens, statutes and mandates,
evolve and conceal, exert and wield,
the wisdom of will, does handle and yield.
Selections and choice, certainty of core
sovereign elixir, the tints and tinctures,
salute and gesture,
the soul does survive, empathy and postures.
Then, ricochets and rebounds,
reflections and echoes, surmount and attain,
when, the glimmers and glows, flickers and twinkles,
conquer and defeat, the hindrances to reach.
The earth swirls, streams to rise,
culpability to hurtle, blames and tears,
the dawn of favors, trinkets and tokens,
persistent facets, to loom and reveal,
pursuit of thunders, would thrive and seize,
angles well within, curlicue and succeed.
The self and the soul,
grasp and gather, fathom and fulfill
requests occur, acquire and ensue,
the breeze caress, and keep touching,
the air tender, ice melts away.
The sky is blue, horizons are sheer,
to roll and revolve, to move and troll,
the maze of prudence, ambit of perceptions,
demanding essence, to leap and flinch.
To lurch and soar, to reel and roll.
the mode is to tame, ardent temptations,
fervent and zealous, perceptive flames,
the chirps and chirrups, do perceive the fame.
Convolute, intwine, interweave and ponder,
decrees, reflections, rumbles and roars,
to seek and reach,
the force and vigor, the might and valor,
to join and link.
Prevail and reign, aberrations and ordeals,
tolerate and tame, the gusts and winds,
durations and lengths, varnish or stain,
convince and defy, the pursuing yearns.
Alireza Bemanian • January 9, 2026 • © www.bemanian.com
Themes & Interpretations
Enthrallment as Double Meaning
To be enthralled is both to be held fast — by tyranny, absolutism, the maze of edicts — and to be enchanted, transported, ravished by existence. The poem holds both meanings simultaneously. Its subject is not the resolution of this doubleness but the fullness of living within it: captivated and enchanted, held and transported at once.
The Recapitulation Arc
“Enthrallment” deliberately echoes The Wholeness and earlier poems across its twelve stanzas — then transforms each echo. The dark forces are reduced to silhouettes. The elixir becomes sovereign. The unanswered “or” questions yield to declarations. The arc from captivation through darkness to earned clarity is credible precisely because the darkness was inhabited before the light was claimed.
Humanity and Benevolence
“Humanity, benevolence, knows to tie and link” is the collection’s most direct answer to its recurring question of what connects things. The binding force is humanistic before it is metaphysical — benevolence as a form of knowledge, a cognitive orientation that inherently produces connection. The elixir of spirit is the elixir of care for others.
The Wisdom of Will
“The wisdom of will, does handle and yield” offers the collection’s most sophisticated account of agency: knowing when to assert directed force and when to release. Neither handling nor yielding is sufficient alone; the wisdom lies in discerning which the moment requires. The paradox is sustained as the living definition of mature intelligence.
The Pursuing Yearns
The collection closes not in arrival but in the ongoing dynamism of the enthralled life. Yearning here is not lack but direction — the vector of the self that remains captivated, surviving, illuminated, and still in motion. To pursue and to yearn are not stages on a path to resolution; they are the path itself. The chapter ends not with a period but with a horizon.