Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark McDonnell
I like it. The use of the Solomon Grundy structure, that thumping finality, signals the irony pretty clearly for me. I'm surprised nobody's picked up on the nursery rhyme. I didn't necessarily read it as against metropolitanism, more just the idea that one can stay in one place (wherever that might be) and have the most extraordinary inner life. I think of Blake, too, who barely ever left Lambeth.
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That's just about it, Mark. You put it better than I did. And it is, of course, Solomon Grundy, through and through. I was going to say that, but wasn't sure whether I needed to.
And also this from Julie - "I take the poem to be about the inadequacy of the narrator's value system, and not about Emily Dickinson at all."
Anyway, this squib has received more attention than I expected, so thanks, all, for that.
I really don't think you're spectacularly dense, Hilary. The leap required from the reader may be greater than it should be. I think Jim R might agree with that, as would Trevor and Cameron.
Pretty much all of the titles suggested - "Julie's "Failure", James's "Read It Slant" (a particularly good one), Julie's "Nobody" (also a good one) - would help.
And I did wonder about the dashes, Rogerbob, but couldn't find a good way to insert them into the poem. And I will have to think about the "never married" line.
Cheers all
David