Hi Colin,
A slight addenda. Cos I'm sorry - I was nipping through to the washing
machine inbetween typing paragraphs and I feel one paragraph got written in
my head but didn't get completed on the screen! Oh the problems of mixing
the real world with the poetry world! Unravelling and pegging things out has
to happen on the page as well!
Anyway, to try and clarify...
I mentioned the Thomas poem "I remember Adlestrop" and declared that it
wouldn't work without mentioning the name of the place (even though so very
few people who love the poem will ever have been through the place, or know
where the place is!). I should then have said that knowing the place must
exist gives an added believability to all else the poem is mentioning.
Pinning the poem down helps release it in the reader's head. Paradoxical but
probably irrefutable! You write: "can they not imagine... their own walk"
etc? and I'm wanting to say: "Yes, when they can believe yours."
I guess all "travelling to" poems have their metaphorical connections
somewhere just beyond where they end. I guess that's why I like this poem
(and why I'm still writing about it!)
And it's been a good drying day!
Bob
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