After all this talk of the expense of living in Oz ~ not to mention the
danger: I had a completely different vision of Sydney ~ I understand why you
wanted more comments on _The Song of the Earth_, Alison, rather than buy it
yourself or go to a library (which won't acquire such elitist stuff). I
haven't got too far yet, which is why my previous remarks were cursory and
allusive. Chapter 4, "Major Weather", is a remarkable consideration of the
importance of the weather in poetry which links Byron's "Darkness" to Keats'
"Ode to Autumn" via the eruption of the Tambora volcano in 1815 and the
resultant crop failures across the planet till 1819, revising our
understanding of both poets in the process, making interesting reference to
thinkers like Alexander von Humboldt and Michel Serres on the way. I'm
looking forward to Chapter 7, "Poets, Apes and Other Animals", containing
the Three Bears theory in the context of a discussion of "the only animal
that laughs and weeps" (Hazlitt) and that animal's responsibility towards
the others.
Martin
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