[R. Nemo Hill]

I rather like the bookishness of the epigraph, but think it could be shortened. Also, it would help if it were formatted differently to keep it visually from competing with the poem. Perhaps that visual element has contributed to what seems its lopsided quality. Hence, shortened and re-formatted...


The Baby and the Bathwater

"...the lord of his household would bathe first,
followed by other men, then women, then children—
with the unfortunate baby being plunged last into sinfully
black waters. ”
....................—Elizabeth Pollard Thistlethwaite

Let it go, let it all go down the drain—
The forest ashes where a witch was burned,
Dirt from the cellar where a queen was slain,
No heir escaping death, and nothing learned,

The crescent moons of darkness under nails,
Ditch-digger’s drops of sweat, the blood from soil
That sprouted fingertips, the slick from snails
Where the butchered peasants were left to spoil:

Let it swirl, let it all swirl down the drain—
Let murderous grime be curlicues to gyre
Around the blackened mouth, let mortal bane
Be gulped, and waste be drink for bole and briar.

Here's a new-washed babe; marvel what man mars,
The flesh so innocent it gleams like stars.


This is by far my favorite of the batch, the only one with consistent surprises to my sensibility as a reader. For me, too many of the sonnets chosen are too similar in tone and subject matter--it seems a domestically lopsided ten and I found it hard to wax enthusiastic for any of them given their appearance all in one group. To put it frankly, I felt bludgeoned by tender nostalgia. Even the Mower's Song, which I like, doesn't rock my world in the monotonous company of the others.

My only reservation with this one is the construction around the word gyre, though it seems worth it for the rhyme with briar.

Nemo