Evocative and quite a scary cautionary tale. It brings to mind, for me, many scenarios, and its open-endedness works perfectly. As someone who, like so many of us, has had a loved one suffer dementia at the end of life, this poem is particularly moving. But, as I already said, there are many ways to interpret the poem (and build, if a reader desires, a narrative that the poem works within) and that makes the poem hauntingly effective.
John, thank you for your comments and for reminding me of Auden's wonderful tribute to Yeats; I very much appreciate your feedback--you probably know that already--but I just wanted to tell you again.
Evocative and quite a scary cautionary tale. It brings to mind, for me, many scenarios, and its open-endedness works perfectly. As someone who, like so many of us, has had a loved one suffer dementia at the end of life, this poem is particularly moving. But, as I already said, there are many ways to interpret the poem (and build, if a reader desires, a narrative that the poem works within) and that makes the poem hauntingly effective.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think of these lines from W. H. Auden's "In Memory of W. B. Yeats":
ReplyDeleteWith the farming of a verse
Make a vineyard of the curse,
Sing of human unsuccess
In a rapture of distress
In the deserts of the heart,
Let the healing fountain start,
In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise.
John, thank you for your comments and for reminding me of Auden's wonderful tribute to Yeats; I very much appreciate your feedback--you probably know that already--but I just wanted to tell you again.
ReplyDelete