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Melodies XLIX; An Englishman Visiting From Spanish Toledo
That braggart, Fortunato, is a churl
mistaking you, as he does, for a girl.
I know you as a lovely, gorgeous boy
whose intimacy I seek and enjoy.
Our close friend and admirer, Montressor,
of whom boastful Luigi has made more
(and quite unfounded) public mockery
has surely promised to confront him once
and for all, for us all, that, from hence, we
need neither fear nor flee his dominance
which is, merely, a mask and false construct:
an honorific for his arrogance
which cannot hide (after it has been plucked
off) his dark ego--craven, cowardly.
Starward
re poem
i asked Jason M what is favorite poem was he said Poe's Annabel Lee
Like Poe's classic, the
Like Poe's classic, the viewpoint (In this case an injured third party and not the avenger) causes us to feel the rage that consumes the narrator. In your high-voltage twist on the classic, the offended is not desiring vengeance for himself, but an innocent victim, which creates an interesting moral dilemma: would murder be a crime or healing for a defenseless and persecuted segment of society?
In your swift and well-ordered universe, justice was done when the pompous scoffer lost his ability to intimidate so that the victims "need neither fear nor flee his dominance/
/ which is, merely, a mask and false construct:/ an honorific for his arrogance/.
Being knocked off his gleeful high horse was enough.
An intriguing and astute example of great writing.
Thank you so very much. I
Thank you so very much. I first read Poe's tale when I was nine years old. Even then, I felt the disapproval of neighbors and classmates because of my ardent love (and growing knowledge) of the old Shock Theater package of the classic horror films from Universal Studios, which would lead me to the writings of Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker. In Fortunato, I saw some of those people who seemed to take great delight in frustrating a nine year old kid (I was supposed to be more interested in earning my Cub Scout badges than in Boris Karloff's great acting), and I saw Montressor (who, I admit, is just a little off the mark on certain things) as an avenger. Thank you for seeing this same tendency in the poem: my present self thank you, and, since I am still that nine year old, now decrepit and old, the nine year old thanks you too.
Starward
It's wonderful that the nine
It's wonderful that the nine year old is still alive and well. My congrats to both of you.