Thanks for the comments and most especially for the critical comments
which also address my concerns.
While I was thinking of a passive voice or perhaps use of verbs in the
passive intransitive (which I read is now considered archaic) I think
that line can be removed, so thanks Doug for this one. I suspect that
after the first two lines what follows functions in some if not most
lines as a scaffold which needs to be removed or collapses into the text
in such a way that poetry is poetry and not editorial comment.
Runt usually refers to smaller then what is expected or should be but
the colloquial US understanding seems to work in ways I had not
considered. I went to the OED to check and also found that runt is also
a dead tree stump and an old woman or hag.
Many thanks, Chris Jones.
On Fri, 2008-09-05 at 10:22 -0700, Stephen Vincent wrote:
> Christopher, I like this, particularly up to the conclusion. A 'runt
> river gum' is that a colloquial expression?? "runts" in the
> States are usually dogs with, at best, more character than looks.
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