The impact of Gray’s sword causing it to bend in the air as it would appear to bend if submerged and refracted in water.  What an image!

See also the bestellar reviews, complete with rich quote-mosaics, of Adam Nicolson’s magnificent Why Homer Matters and Logue’s War Music, a muscular rendition of several books of the Iliad. 

‘Gray’s sword

Bent as if seen through water…’

Source: Christopher Logue, War Music: An account of Books 1-4 and 16-19 of Homer’s Iliad, London: Faber and Faber, 2001, p. 178

Photo credit: websi, pixabay.com