Originally posted by Robert J. Clawson:
I want to toss into this wonderful forum what I consider a contemporary masterpiece, a poem that haunts me, not just because of its subject and its masterful story-telling, but also because of its remarkable usage, its imagery, and the turning of its couplets, their drama.
I have turned to this post a couple times and read this poem through a couple times each time. I agree with you.
The setup for the ending when the Word of the bible, after the horrors they have experienced, becomes to Isabella something she no longer understands ("The Word was Manchester") works perfectly though it took me a couple readings to put it together. The Shhh, shhh, of the shovel telling Isabella to be silent is brilliant. This is a poem that shows and does not tell.
I am a little confused by the opening lines though. (answering myself)--Giving it some consideration over night I now understand the first lines and have come back to answer my own query. The sun is being compared to a signaling mirror and the light it is throwing off is not self-created but a reflection of Jesus's light--His message--His hot message. (One thinks the words "to catch the sun" should be read "to catch the Son".) The missionaries (who have been preaching the message of Jesus) are going to receive a message from Jesus and the poem tells what that message says---not what it means. To Isabella the message--the Word--is "Manchester".
I am curious how this poem was written. Reading it I get the feeling that this is a synopsis of either a published story or a diary---as if someone took another literary work and cut it down to its bare bones and made a poem out of it. I feel there is an originating document somewhere. Anybody know?
Again adding to my original post I think it interesting to point out that this poem basically asks the same question as Blake does in his "Tiger". What is the point of evil in this world? What type of God would create evil? Raine's poem lays its stress on Jesus, questioning whether the new testament Son is truly benevolent as advertised---or really just as malevolent as his old testament Father.
ewrgall
[This message has been edited by ewrgall (edited April 27, 2001).]
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