Thanks Matt. I think S2L1 is just smuggling a little more information in, but it does set out my position: I knew she had taught at the Dhoor, but I wasn't sure when. (I've since found out it was her first teaching job after returning from her teacher-training college towards the end of, or just after, WW2. Vagueness again! You can find a reference to this in my poem about her in my slim collection, if you happen to have a copy.)

I think I read the unCERTain biOGraPHY as the UNCERTain biOGraPHY, which is probably very irregular of me. It's just the way it comes out.

Your suggested revised ending is very tempting.

Cheers

David

(I have more comments to respond to, I know, but hark, I must flit. I will be back. Interim thanks to all anyway.)

Thanks Jayne. That is a lovely triolet, isn't it? He doesn't beat about the bush as I do, does he?

I think I've reversed "a place obscure" just because I was seduced by the perfect internal rhyme (if that's the technical term for it). Whether that's a good excuse or not, I don't know, but I still like it.

Hi Paula. Nice to "meet" you. Good luck in your excavation. There's gold in them thar hills. Glad you liked the voice here. (Tis my own, but there are probably other influences in there.)

About the phrase ... it is probably the most well-known Manx phrase still circulating in a now almost exclusively English-speaking island, so would need no explanation over here ... but that's not your point, is it? Maybe this is one just for the tribe, as it were, but I can always add an explanatory note for the uninitiated. Maybe I should.

And Mark has it exactly right on the CV. Thanks for that, Mark! And for the rest, but I'll have to get back to you on that a bit later. The real world calls. I won't be long.

Cheers all

David

Apologies for the piecemeal response, but such is life. Mark, thanks for that. And you're absolutely right on the CV. I'm glad you like "a place obscure" too. And I see you can read the line Matt objected to the same way that I do, but I do need to look at the full stop again.

And that other possibly trimeter line, which I hadn't noticed until now.

Cheers for that (and the rest).

David

David--
Actually, I think adding a little asterisk for the Manx phrase with a translation and a pronunciation guide would absolutely aid me as a reader to better enjoy the poem. I'm far too lazy to pull up a translation app or start googling in the middle of a poem. Such an easy fix! I suspect that we lazy readers may be in the majority, so best to bow to our tyranny and help us out. :)

The poem stands up to multiple reads. I'm still enjoying this on return.