[Wild Bill]

I confess that, apart from the technical mastery of this poem, I took a while to warm to it. I think it was Janet's audacious use of a familiar myth in a very unfamiliar way that put me off at first. And, as someone else said, we can understand Medea but we don't like her.

But I have warmed to it. The twist on the Medea fable is that she sacrificed childbearing rather than children. And that she remained childless in order to promote his career and is now supplanted by a woman who produces children is particularly poignant.

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Bill

[Rhina P. Espaillat]

I agree with Jim's comment on "useful." Sometimes the sly, modest word that takes longer to work does work better.