Does anyone have ideas about this poem which appears at the end of The
House Surgeon in Actions and Reactions? The first three verses are a
summary of the point of the story, culminating in a fine RK epigram -
The arrows of our anguish
Fly farther than we guess.
But the last verse is something else again. It is an amazing versification
of 'Two Samuel double fourteen' - Chapter 14 verse 14 of the second book of
Samuel, concerning the wise woman of Tekoah. It stuck in RK's mind to such
an extent that he used it again in On The Gate in Debits and Credits. What
is it doing in this poem? And why the *Rabbi's* Song (the fact that the
protagonist of the story is Jewish does not seem very relevant)? The
actual bible quotation is not much more illuminating, at least to me.
Any clarification gratefully received.
Michael Healy
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