EVENING
He told us, with the years, you will come
To love the world.
And we sat there with our souls in our laps,
And comforted them.
— Dorothea Tanning
from The Antioch Review, Winter 2004, v. 62, no. 1
and A Table of Content
(Graywolf, 2004)
_________
Notes by Judith Hall
1. A note should not
be longer than a poem.
2. Tanning’s “o”
sounds — her “come,” “love,” “comforted” struck against the longer “told” and
“souls” – counterpoint with sonic half-companions despair. Music, though, does not ease affect, and the
poem persuades, at least this reader, by suspending resolution.
3. Modest
assonance? Is assonance modest? Erotic?
4. A note should spur
– inspire? – a reader to reenter the poem.