The River Merchant’s Wife
April 26th, 2010I came across this blog post today. I’ve been thinking about Pound’s “The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter” and specifically the line “Why should I climb the lookout?”. The comments are hilarious, but not bad or entirely wrong by any means.
Steph says that she’s not in the right mood to understand poetry. However, she interprets the first line exactly as it should be interpreted, “it reminds me of when i was little.” This is just like the narrator recalling when she was little. No great leap, but still. This is what we want from poetry.
Carla similarly discounts her capacity to interpret and understand poetry. She’s right. This is a sad poem. I find it particularly devastating. Perhaps because of the narrator’s resignation, “I grow older,” and lonliness. The spare language somehow evokes great emotion, but this is more or less the program of imagism, so I make no great leap in stating it.
Josh… well, I just dislike most of what I’ve read of Eliot. The good in Prufrock I assume to be Pound’s anyway. Elliot’s work always seems plastic.
I HATE EMILY DICKINSON makes a very funny point about the likely distance to Cho-fu-sa.
When I think about most of the poem’s tone, the short lines, the lonliness, the resignation, and then think about the line, “Why should I climb the lookout?” Is that defiance? I will not give in to longing.