Walcott himself characterizes the apparition as having four roles (or phases): the moon, the muse, the white goddess, a dancer. All of these manifestations coalesce into a simultaneous complex of meaning, splendidly articulated by Robert Graves in The White Goddess. He writes, "Her name and titles are innumerable. In ghost stories she often figures as 'The White Lady', and in ancient religions, from the British Isles to the Caucasus, as the 'White Goddess'." She is the Muse, "the Mother of All Living, the ancient power of fright and lust—the female spider or the queen-bee whose embrace is death." The Night Mare is one of her cruellest aspects. But it is she who inspires the magical language of poetic myth which "remains the language of true poetry." Hence the goddess has complementary moods of creation and destruction.
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