> Hello Colin,
              It seems to be a fair old way up the obscurity end, I fancy. I was not sure what to make of it. I played around with the notion of `common ground´ `meaning´ shared opinions and tried to fit that in with selling an idea, but I didn´t get very far. Reading the poem at a literal level I found myself confused about exactly who has moved and who is selling a house. At first I thought the narrator had just moved in to a new home and not removed the for sale sign. Yet in S2 the house still seems to be for sale and I wonder if it´s actually the neighbours house which is for sale, but then why does the narrator talk of meeting the neighbours in S1? However, I guess the literal reading is not what your trying to get at here. I also tried to identify some general tone in the poem but couldn´t come up with anything more than frustration and failure (I mean on the part of the would-be house seller), and something supressed or hidden. I don´t know if this helps at all, though I rather suspect it won´t - sorry.



Best wishes,   Mike



> Lähettäjä: Colin dewar <[log in to unmask]>
> Päiväys: 2003/09/17 ke PM 08:06:52 GMT+03:00
> Vastaanottaja: [log in to unmask]
> Aihe: newsub/common ground
> 
> An exercise in understatement. So please reflect back to me what it seems to
> be about so that I can work out where it is on the old clarity/obscurity
> spectrum. (Not to say that there everyone agrees there is such a spectrum.
> Let's say some impression of "what it means to me" would be helpful,
> thanks.)
> 
> Common ground
> 
> The For Sale sign is still fresh
> the following week,
> faded the following month.
> Spring passes and it's summer
> by the time I meet my neighbours
> to say how nice their garden seems
> with every blossom bulging
> and every weed pulled from tidy soil.
> 
> Yet however nice the house won't sell.
> They won't say it when I ask
> but I watch averted glances,
> stiff smiles and wonder why.
> While we stand on shared ground
> they blame the estate agent.
> My eyes wander to the wet field
> where fence posts rotted when the rain stayed,
> the invasion of council grass
> by sedge from the marsh.
> 
> 
> Colin
>