I believe "The Watcher" is a very personal allegory of the poet's state as a single man, before he met his wife, Penelope. He felt himself at root to be peculiar and isolated, even disfigured, hence the worm. Read the poem through with this thought in mind, and perhaps you will see it in a different way.
I posted "Imperial Adam" to illustrate that Hope is not the naif you might take him to be, if you read "The Watcher" too literally.
Alan Sullivan
[This message has been edited by Alan Sullivan (edited 11-15-2000).]
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