I’m very grateful to Rhina and all of you for your generous and insightful comments. I’m honoured, and surprised, that Rhina chose this one.
Rhina, your understanding of my poem is exact, and you have explained it better than I could.
Terese, I’m fascinated that you detect the idea of reincarnation. Was it the ‘kindred spirits’?
Tim, yes, there’s an echo of ‘My Back Pages’. Dylan wrote it when young, and his theme is the certainty of youth, diminishing with age, I believe; but I like to think that he also was considering the circularity of time.
Susan, I take your point about Maentwrog (‘Mine/too/rog’), but thought it essential to have specific location. Hopefully, most readers of a fairly regular poem would just assume a metrical pronunciation.
Many thanks again to all of you.
Best wishes,
David
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