Hi, Julie,
Thanks for responding. I was limited by the range of rhymes for "men," or I might not have used "ken." But I use it to mean "knowledge or awareness." I thought it was preferable to avoid the more clichéd phrasing of "beyond their ken" while emphasizing the height disparity. The hawk/wren allusion was meant to suggest that short men have often experienced bullying when young, not specifically sexual predation. Something about shortness just signals "potential victim" to some people. With intelligence or humor, they often learn to talk their way out of danger. If they can't avoid being bullied, it often gives them some sympathy and understanding of what it is like to be bullied.
I was uncomfortable with the meter of S1L3, so I have rewritten it.
Susan
|