This event has had another positive impact on me, in that it has made me resolve to read more Merrill. I have the large Collected, but have never been able to get involved. Like Amit, I've had trouble connecting. And I suspect that a good deal of that is due to my weakness for poems that grab the reader by the neck, as opposed to those that ask more initial investment from the reader.
I've seen more in this poem and been more drawn to it, and to the careful artistry, with each rereading; and will have another look at more of Merrill as a result. I do wish, though - and I know this is my own problem - that the dammed initial caps weren't there. They always seem to get in the way of the poem.
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