Susan, that's a very well thought out comment, with a lot more in it than my early "an exercise in writing about poetry." I especially like what you say here:
"Writing about [chaotic human experience] does not make the experience itself less chaotic, but it gives the writer a feeling of control that is satisfying. When experience controls you, the servitude is awful. When you control it (even without fully understanding it), it is rather like harnessing the power of the unconscious."
That feeling of control can begin by just labeling the experience, calling it names. At its worst, this can be tracing a path from innocent-seeming incident A to consequence B followed by possibly premature act C through disaster D, etc., all lined up like dominoes. The roads not taken, or taken. At its best, it can go the other way too. Our biological history ensures that we can usually remember the negative paths most easily so we can try not to repeat similar screw-ups and avoid other traps. Shakespeare's Sonnet 29 ("When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes....") calls the names at least, even if his problems can't be remedied. Millay wants to "make" him. I bet she did!
I like your remarks about poetic creation as sometimes being a strategy to put reins on chaos.
Very perceptive. Thanks!
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