The Whisperer

The Whisperer is the god Hermes, the god of crossing boundaries—the friendliest of gods to men, he is also lord of roads, a guide of the dead to Hades, and he protects men in their dealing with strangers: whenever an entry is made into another world, or a different kind of knowledge, the whisperer is there, wherever a road is traveled, there the wonderful companion suddenly appears. It is a trait of his character that he is swift, always moving, and when he appears it is sudden, and magical. He can give sudden windfalls of luck, he can take everything away. The dog in these poems appears in a similar way-—wherever he is, some boundary has been crossed, some kind of knowledge not normally available to us, is manifested. He is a companion, one we think belongs to us, who actually belongs to another level of reality.