Another poetry discussion

[popsycal]

Thought I would add a poem here, as anorak did last week.

The poem is by an American poet called Donald Justice - have chosen it for a variety of reason, one being that I didn't think many people would have heard it...

It is called Love's strategms:

But these maneuverings to avoid
The touching of hands,
These shifts to keep the eyes employed
On objects more or less neutral
(As honor, for time being, commands)
Will hardly prevent their downfall.

Stronger medicines are needed.
Already they find
None of their strategems have succeeded,
Nor would have, no,
Not had their eyes been stricken blind,
Hands cut off at the elbow.

no one?

I'll definitely contribute later. Busy now popsy.

Don't worry, lots of people are interested but they come on line at various times.

hi have read it once and am having difficulty taking it in. i guess it is about the hopelessness of resisting love? i wonder what the "story" if any is behind it - is it about avoiding infidelity - I find the use of the word "honor" interesting

Will think about this one and post more later. My initial thoughts are that it's not an easy one to read. I've scanned through it 3 times now and have only just started to make sense of it.

oh good, not just me being dim struggling with it(!)

There is a sense of inevitability or fate here, that there is nothing that these two people (or maybe any two people) can do to stop an attraction going further. I was interested in the use of the word "honor" too, and initially thought that it might be alluding to an illicit love affair, but then it seems quite an old-fashioned word too, and conjured up for me a picture of 19thC courtship such as that described in novels like Pride and Prejudice. Which I suppose in its time would have been deemed equally illicit as an extra-marital affair these days.

I like the unusual ABACBD rhyme pattern, it has a sense of cohesion whilst not conforming entirely to standard patterns of poetry, of that makes sense. The repeated s sounds are quite harsh, and I wonder if this is intentional - the first thing that sprang to mind about this was the temptation of Eve by the serpent in the Garden of Eden, although that's perhaps looking a little too deep!

When I first read this I thought it was old, as it does have quite an old-fashioned feeling to it. But the use of words such as 'neutral', 'maneuverings' etc actually suggest more modernity to me. I find it economical and quite successful in one of the many definitions of poetry - expressing the quintessence of an idea. I guess the overall theme is body language and how hard it is to control.

But I do find the choice of language prosaic. I don't object to prosaic language in poetry per se, but I think the poet here has endeavoured to give the poem an old-fashioned and for me that is in conflict with the choice of language.

'an old-fashioned feel' is what I meant to say.

I felt that that conflict was possibly intended to show that this is an age-old thing, anorak, which is why I felt it could reflect anything from Adam and Eve to a modern day affair.