In message <[log in to unmask]>,
"K.M. Sutherland" <[log in to unmask]> writes
>
>
>
>On Mon, 10 May 1999, Peter Riley wrote:
>
>>
>> >To:Peter Howard <[log in to unmask]>
>> >From:[log in to unmask] (Peter Riley)
>> >Subject:Re: Heterodox brick wall syndrome help request
>> >
>> >Prynne primer part one.
>> >
>> >Poems, 1999, first page, first poem.
>> >
>> >Begins--
>> >
>> >The whole thing it is, the difficult
>> >matter: to shrink the confines
>> >down. To signals, so that I come
>> >back to this, we are
>> > small / in the rain
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >What's the problem? Seems clear as daylight to me.
>> >And maybe a clue to all that follows.
>> >Of course people don't like being told they're small. But they are.
>> >Especially in the rain.
>> >
>> >/PR
>>
>>
>>
>
>-- or rather, they're small because they contrive reflexively to seem so.
>Hence, "to shrink...so that I come / back to this". This is
>particularly marked, since 'shrnk' is made transitive. And the sense of
>seeming small can be -swapped- for merely being in the rain. We entitle
>ourselves to seem so.
>
Westron winde when will thou blow
And the smalle raine down can raine
Christ that my love were in my arms
And I in my bed againe.
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