Dear Dr. Sharon-Zisser, if there were world enough and time, I would be
prepared to spend a hundred years on the genre of the Teares of the Muses,
two hundred on its literary tradition, but thirty thousand to the poem
itself, an age for the tears of each muse. The poem deserves it but I would
not spend one moment on the identification of pleasant Willy. However, if
others wish to use him to pursue issues of identity, let them. It's a free
country.
A.C. Hamilton
At 11:10 AM 2000-11-14 +0200, you wrote:
>Dear Professor Hamilton,
>
>Thank you for responding. I would want to reflect about the identity of
>Willy not in relation to hard facts but to the extent it helps me
>understand issues raised by the poem. I would not be interested in any
>particular candidate of those proposed. I am very interested, on the other
>hand, in the line's enticing us into thinking about the issues of identity
>and identification. Do you not see this as intrinsic to the poem? And would
>not the thinking about issues raised by poems, not hard facts, help us stay
>close to thepoem, enter into its mysteries, and hence contribute to the
>intellectual health of poetry analysis?
>
>Sinecrely,
>
>Dr. Shirley Sharon-Zisser
>
A.C.Hamilton
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Cappon Professor Emeritus
Queen's University, Canada
Phone & Fax: 613- 544-6759
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