In an upcoming review of SMUDGE it’s put that Louis MacNeice’s poet had better deal with the incorrigible plurality of life, but James won’t have anything to do with it. It’s an insightful comment: and maybe so. I find the duality in all things, comparison by opposites, but my aim, should I focus on such a thing, perhaps is more the unity of the moment. “…James is the poet of the moment.”
But meanings must be interpreted and found in their
own light. Blake’s The Sick Rose, has
religious, almost to say, psychological overtones. Dylan might be singing of
Christianity’s promise in Shelter from the storm, Or is it simply a love
song. It’s all in the heart, it’s all in
the mind. And in the distances between those poles is room to manoeuvre.
And if the opposite of time is eternity. There’s unity, even a purpose in the world we
are part of and cannot long ignore.
O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
