8 oct 2003

I.13a "Here the anthem doth commence"

"The Phoenix and the Turtle" by that same British dramatist. 4-beat trochaic quatrains rhyming ABBA, quite well handled, never monotonous; intellectually complex and linguistically dense. Not my favorite Shakespeare poem, but it's got to be graded high. A

13b "But he, though blind of sight"

My first thought was that the verse was distinctly "Miltonic." Since it appears to be about the figure of Samson (not named in this passage) I'm concluding that it is a from "Samson Agonistes." It's got that powerful, though irregular rhythmic drive in its lines of variable length, frequent enjambment. The evocation of the mythological Phoenix is somewhat wordy, but there is a great kinetic force that makes up for any lack of visual imagination. A+

***

This is boring. I need some mediocre or bad poetry. How do you know I'm not cheating and looking in the back? Once I do, the game will be over, because it will have no point to it. Section II has the names of the authors included and LZ's own commentary. Section III is anonymous again. The eerie thing is that there are 75 sections in all, just like the 75 sections of the BAP. I'll probably skip the middle section.

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