Very elegant -- a weird hint of Emily Dickinson, in a very un-Emily mood. I don't see sadness: I see a species of dreadful hilarity in triumph, that only the title hints is not all that may have been desired -- the opposite, even, maybe, of what was wanted. Not like the triumph in "A Cask of Amontillado", which this somehow reminds me of. Fine indeed.
A very welcome return to verse. I like the way it sets strongly antithetical sentiments against each other in each verse, like a pair of boards or books leaned against each other in a way that seemingly could not stand. They don't topple, so the tensions persist. The reader is left trying to resolve them: what final feeling does the poet harbor for the dead beloved? Are we to see a parallel or a contrast between the poet's verse and the lover's "words / To other lovers"? The poem doesn't say; everything remains clenched.
Comments 3
(The comment has been removed)
Reply
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment