Yes, that's probably the explanation, t-i-n 


Just one more from Wendy Cope


E Pericoloso Sporgersi

But a modulation to D flat minor
argues for pronouns of a different kind:
the consideration of history as syntax
or a slow dance of nomadic stones.
No wonder the flight of the pigeon
over the Piazza Cortina at sunset
becomes a gesture of the purest angst.

Pastruccio knew what to make of such
gratuitous moments, the refractions
of inveterate light. In a garden
of non sequiturs the silkworm dozes,
ignorant of Spinoza and unworried
by sex or the darkening obscurity
of sonorous sentences like these.

My cat piddles on the carpet and yawns.
Art, he reflects, is rivalled only
by a cargo of absolutes sailing northwards
to Goethe's incomparable parakeet.
The gods dream dictionaries and sonatinas.
Beyond the window their shadows lengthen,
aspiring to the stature of a late quartet.

 

Oh, I don't know that we have to decide, do we? She does non-whimsical as well as whimsical. These parodies are all by her alter ego, the poet 'Jason Strugnell'. I suppose a little goes a long way but they are very good parodies.

I wouldn't dare post any Wendy Cope over on the M & S Board though. I'd soon be put back in my box.  (I quite like Carol Ann Duffy and hadn't realised she counted as insanely conservative and establishment. Caught out fraternising the wrong sided of the barricades again.)   

I wasn't sure about D flat minor either, whether it was deliberate or not. There you are, some ambiguity as well!

Neither had I, although I don't think I've read any since I was at school. She's a lesbian, isn't she?

I've just encountered some ambiguity in my email inbox:

DTPM Sydney
3rd Birthday Party
Australia Day Long Weekend at Tank

I spent a good few seconds wondering why a day-long weekend was something to shout about.

Since Susan Doris has raised the subject:

Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,
Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
Rose out of Chaos: or, if Sion hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed
Fast by the oracle of God, I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above th' Aonian mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.
And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer
Before all temples th' upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for thou know'st; thou from the first
Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread,
Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast Abyss,
And mad'st it pregnant: what in me is dark
Illumine, what is low raise and support;
That, to the height of this great argument,
I may assert Eternal Providence,
And justify the ways of God to men.

I love the bit "dove-like sat'st brooding".  When Milton does use English monosyllables they can certainly tell.  Particuarly the last six words of the passage.  And the OTT thing about the whole thing is that it is one sentence, culminating in those six simple words with such rhetorical power to make Philip Pullman and Empson think Milton has produced the best argument for God, whereas I have my definite doubts.

The reference to the Holy Spirit "brooding over the waters" is from Genesis, and feminist theologians have rightly pointed out that the first image for God in the text of the Bible is a female image of a nesting mother bird.

It's two different metaphors, both connected by the idea of birds.  "Mighty wings outspread" conveys the idea of power, omnipotence etc.  "Dove-like sat'st brooding" is the gentle, creative, nurturing side.

O, I forgot to mention it's the opening of Paradise Lost.

'Thou from the first wast present' is Biblical too, isn't it? Ab aeterno ordinata sum, I mean.

Susan - I did my degree in English a long, long time ago before anyone had discovered a thing called structuralism

My dad did Paradise Lost for the equivalent of O levels in the late 30s.  I think he said he only did Books 1 & 2.  He would wake me up for school (the days before central heating) quoting bits of it, or from Henry V.

To be absolutely honest, I think I have not read much more than the first two books!

Ollie -  I am not sure , but I would think that a theological concept like "thou from the first" is not to be found in the magnificently mythological first chapter of Genesis.

I have never heard of anyone reading Paradise Regained.