[ilds] syllabary and codes

[Bruce Redwine]

All this is open to question and speculation, which is obviously the way Durrell wants it.  There are no specific time references.  "His time and ours" could refer to the distant past or it could refer to the High Modernism of the early 20th century, which I often think of as producing "in-bred poetry," and which could also be said of just about any literary movement.  Since Durrell was always an outsider, I can see him making some snide allusion to maybe a T. S. Eliot, who indeed had a "famished" appearance, but whether this applies to his poetry is a nice point to debate.

Why do I think the poem is contemporary with composition?  The colloquial diction for one:  "Say what you like . . . "  "Three paces apart" makes me think of dueling and "laquered toes" of painted toe nails (which I think is a fairly modern habit with women but maybe not).

Also the "Merry and indolent" woman reminds me of Eve/Justine, the exoticism of "saffron parasol" and "queer crocketed tent."  There's a photo on Eve on Rhodes where she dresses up in Turkish garb.  That fits something out of the Magic Flute.  The "musical city" is Vienna, home of Freud.  Was Eve taken there for treatment?  "The slow disgracing of her mind" is Eve's schizophrenia, as opposed to "Nessim's madness."  All very strained, to be sure, but Durrell's tight verse has to be twisted tight to get meaning out of it.


Bruce

-----Original Message-----
>From: slighcl <slighcl at wfu.edu>
>Sent: Feb 27, 2008 8:40 PM
>To: Bruce Redwine <bredwine1968 at earthlink.net>, ilds at lists.uvic.ca
>Subject: Re: [ilds] syllabary and codes
>
>On 2/27/2008 11:25 PM, Bruce Redwine wrote:
>>   I also take the time of the poem as modern, roughly contemporaneous 
>> with composition, and not one of Cavafy's historical moments, although 
>> this too is rather vague and indefinite.
>>
>
>Here is the time referent for the poem, right?
>
>>         On the other hand neither would she build him sons
>>         Or be a subject for verses---the famished in-bred poetry
>>         Which was the fashion of *his time and ours*.
>
>So what sort of historical setting do we have starting from that point?
>
>C&c.