Comment 2 of 2, added on March 10th, 2006 at 5:54 PM.
I did not find this poem to be bland. I think it says a lot of thoughtful
things in a way that is not only trimmed of all excess, but indeed stuffed
with double meanings, non-sequential branches and loops by internal
reference, and external references to supplementary information. I spent
several minutes looking for connections between fragments of the poem that
are not necessarily placed together on the page, and it is full of them. I
found the opening line of the poem to beg this process, with the open-ended
verb "is" (fill in the blank), which can then go to the next line or back
to the first word, "dead."
The treatment of antonyms is quite elegant, and enormous pieces of nonsense
like wondering "the meaning" of life become redirected towards a statement
that the whole invention of meaning comes by contrast of a thing with its
environment and listing differences in your mind.
dead/alive
enormous/submicroscopic
eternity/moment
Each pair is interrelated, forming two groups describing simple, yet
spacially and temporaly overwhelming observations to identify all of human
existance as ultimately pointlike.
I shouldn't go on forever about the specific details of my ameteur, poorly
informed analysis, (I could write pages of ideas that I have about this
poem, but I'm just inventing things anyway if you can't tell, don't trust
me as being an informed analist.) but will end with one more comment about
external references. here is another pair of words:
nonsense/lear
external reference: now look up Edward Lear (1812-1888) - English painter
and nonsense poet...
ryan from
United States
I did not find this poem to be bland. I think it says a lot of thoughtful
things in a way that is not only trimmed of all excess, but indeed stuffed
with double meanings, non-sequential branches and loops by internal
reference, and external references to supplementary information. I spent
several minutes looking for connections between fragments of the poem that
are not necessarily placed together on the page, and it is full of them. I
found the opening line of the poem to beg this process, with the open-ended
verb "is" (fill in the blank), which can then go to the next line or back
to the first word, "dead."
The treatment of antonyms is quite elegant, and enormous pieces of nonsense
like wondering "the meaning" of life become redirected towards a statement
that the whole invention of meaning comes by contrast of a thing with its
environment and listing differences in your mind.
dead/alive
enormous/submicroscopic
eternity/moment
Each pair is interrelated, forming two groups describing simple, yet
spacially and temporaly overwhelming observations to identify all of human
existance as ultimately pointlike.
I shouldn't go on forever about the specific details of my ameteur, poorly
informed analysis, (I could write pages of ideas that I have about this
poem, but I'm just inventing things anyway if you can't tell, don't trust
me as being an informed analist.) but will end with one more comment about
external references. here is another pair of words:
nonsense/lear
external reference: now look up Edward Lear (1812-1888) - English painter
and nonsense poet...
ryan from United States