Huge thanks for being so “gabbily explanatory,” Rick. Poets and artists rarely offer so wide and welcoming a window into their work.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick Mullin
Twice, I think, I risked permanent expulsion from Eratosphere by suggesting we shut the Deep End down because nobody was really digging in.
|
Aw, c’mon. Does that really happen? Michael Burch claims he was banned for life for pointing out that “Erato was the abstract personification of love poetry.” Is there some fascist poetry site that goes by the same name?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick Mullin
Yes, “Show me a man” means show me someone of extraordinary quality. A Byronic hero. Rooster Cogburn. Well, we had him, but his gone…. “or bring him back,…”
|
I have trouble seeing the man described in S3 as heroic. Larger than life, yes—bellicose, contemptuous of rules, a sexual predator—and now being called back in response to the rage of those who feel their future has been hijacked. Yes, he’s summoned by the N, but I felt sure it was the bitterly ironic “we” of the last line.
All I’m saying is that if you “recoil” from this interpretation, your rewrite should somehow discourage it. It all seemed so clear …