Thanks for your comments, again - I think it's probably time for the poem
to go into a drawer for a few weeks. I've been turning the quatrain
business (and the use of "pain") over in my head. At the moment I like the
quatrains, not only for their brutal divisions, and wonder what the
reaction might have been if the other version had not been seen - my reason
for them, and for the word "pain" too, is that for me they bring Emily
Dickinson's poem a little into focus into this one's genealogy ("after
great pain a formal feeling comes") -
My projects, Douglas, seem to turn into novels. But I'm certainly not a
French poet.
Best to all
Alison
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