Sunday, November 19, 2006

I'll Touch Your Children with MY Milk Wand!



"Out of the seagull cries and wind
On this strange shore I build
The virgin. They laugh to hear
How I endow her, standing
Hair mocked by the sea"

from
"To Liberty," a fragment

Today is a holiday--I was finally able to pick up a copy of Hart's collected poems, which means that I can post entire strophes and poems now, instead of whatever measly few lines I was able to scrawl on a napkin before they hustled me out of the bookstore.

In this interpretation, I have cast the speaker of the poem as a devil-eyed cow. The cow is "building" a grilled cheese sandwich resembling the Virgin Mary with flamboyant streams of milk--the whole scene is reminiscent of those horrible Kraft commercials where the cow fairy touches children with her milk wand and makes their sandwiches fill up with cheese, except in my version, the cow is gripping her own udders between clumsy hooves and spraying milk directly on the Virgin's face. You will surely laugh to see how she endows her. On the same beach stands Cousin Itt, who stares philosophically across the water while the ocean taunts, "I'm fingering your girlfriend with an octopus RIGHT NOW!"

3 comments:

Blogaulaire said...

Thanks for the link on The Complete Poems of Hart Crane (Centennial Edition) (Paperback)

It had slipped my mind . . but I do desire having this and will watch your blog for what you choose to share.

Let me know this way of other finds. BTW it's hard to make out what the cow is making, but is udderly fun.

Anonymous said...

Clap...
Clap...
Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap...

Patricia Lockwood said...

Yes, the milk is obscuring the Virgin's face a little bit, as always happens in these situations. I figured you guys wouldn't mind.

Whoa, I've never seen the slow-clap rendered in print before--well done, my stupefied audience, well done!