05-06-2013, 04:45 AM
Not everything is a symbol, cidermaid, at least not to a crude, graceless craftsman like me
Sometimes a bird is just a bird, and a tree is just a tree, though the tree in this poem is based on Christian/Catholic imagery, like God speaking to Moses through a burning bush. It was also inspired by a tree in Flannery O'Connor's short story "Parker's Back", which catches on fire when a spiritually lost man crashes a tractor against it.
Terrence Malick's film The Tree of Life (which I assume you're referring to) never crossed my mind while I was writing. I haven't even seen it.
The only players in this poem are the narrator, the woman he loves and God, who's "You" and only "You". To distinguish between God and the other players I capitalised "You". The narrator is a devout Catholic in 19th-century England who's been impressed by the Gothic revival and Pugin. I've been studying Pugin for my arts course, and his distaste for classical architecture (i.e. Greek), which he considered un-English and Pagan, informs my narrator's viewpoint, at least in the poem's first half. Because the narrator loves the woman intensely he associates her with his faith and pre-Reformation England, which as a devout Catholic he idealises, while despising the Protestant ascendancy.
The poem is basically about a devout 19th-century Catholic who loves a woman and talks to God about that love. Thank you for your incredibly detailed and intense analysis, cidermaid
It's appreciated.
Thank you for your kind feedback, ambrosial revelation Don't be afraid of serious critique; whatever you can offer, so long as it says something and is based on what you truly think, is enough. I know what you mean, though. I sometimes look at other people's comments, then back at my own, and mine seem so meagre. But all honest and serious feedback counts, and it's about quality, not quantity.
Sometimes a bird is just a bird, and a tree is just a tree, though the tree in this poem is based on Christian/Catholic imagery, like God speaking to Moses through a burning bush. It was also inspired by a tree in Flannery O'Connor's short story "Parker's Back", which catches on fire when a spiritually lost man crashes a tractor against it.Terrence Malick's film The Tree of Life (which I assume you're referring to) never crossed my mind while I was writing. I haven't even seen it.
The only players in this poem are the narrator, the woman he loves and God, who's "You" and only "You". To distinguish between God and the other players I capitalised "You". The narrator is a devout Catholic in 19th-century England who's been impressed by the Gothic revival and Pugin. I've been studying Pugin for my arts course, and his distaste for classical architecture (i.e. Greek), which he considered un-English and Pagan, informs my narrator's viewpoint, at least in the poem's first half. Because the narrator loves the woman intensely he associates her with his faith and pre-Reformation England, which as a devout Catholic he idealises, while despising the Protestant ascendancy.
The poem is basically about a devout 19th-century Catholic who loves a woman and talks to God about that love. Thank you for your incredibly detailed and intense analysis, cidermaid
It's appreciated.Thank you for your kind feedback, ambrosial revelation
Don't be afraid of serious critique; whatever you can offer, so long as it says something and is based on what you truly think, is enough. I know what you mean, though. I sometimes look at other people's comments, then back at my own, and mine seem so meagre. But all honest and serious feedback counts, and it's about quality, not quantity.
"We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges." - Gene Wolfe