Ok, I’ve been given some clues and am back for another go.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Deborah J. Shore
Interesting to see a Sapphic here! … Congratulations for modernizing the meter.
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I have a mental block on Sapphics—never recognize them until someone points it out. I do find them delightfully done here, and it immediately made me feel more at home in the poem.
I’m reassured that other readers floundered in the whirl of references almost as much as I did. Thanks to Mark for identifying Valerie and Vivian and especially the Captain’s Tower:
The Titanic sails at dawn
And everybody’s shouting
“Which Side Are You On?”
And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot
Fighting in the captain’s tower
Quote:
Originally Posted by Glenn Wright
The anti-social character whose behavior would have merited a 911 call a generation ago is now a typical MAGA Republican.
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Yeah, that’s how I now understand the cannibal Queequeg. I like to think the older generation in my family, which felt so at home in the first stanza, would have jumped ship in the latter ones.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Deborah J. Shore
if I’m convinced that the poet’s vision and reasoning is clear, I’m more likely to press in enough over time to get some of what I missed
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I’m enjoying the process of pressing in and, with help from the audience, getting a slightly sharper focus with each reading, but I’d never have had the patience outside the Sphere. Here—with the charm of the meter to compensate for what remains obscure—I’ll be back for more.