tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post3921116679858513365..comments2024-03-28T11:28:31.364-05:00Comments on Anecdotal Evidence: `The Stars in Secret Influence Comment'Patrick Kurphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08436175583386298032noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-70467261944826065372012-09-24T12:46:28.498-05:002012-09-24T12:46:28.498-05:00I am so glad to have happened upon your blog while...I am so glad to have happened upon your blog while searching for my favorite David Ferry poem, "Scrim." I appreciate your insights regarding this newer piece, "Street Scene." Your explanation of the italicized parts saved me some research, as I finished my education in 1983 and haven't felt the need to read a Shakespearean sonnet since then. <br /><br />While you have not asked for any commentary since 2009, I'll only offer my own reading of this unexpectedly complex puzzle with which Ferry has presented us. I hear <i>Waiting for Godot</i> evoked, as he observes himself observing essentially nothing, but manages to build a magical world around it, one that he controls. <br /><br />I would not be so comfortable assuming that the speaker is at all mad, but rather, like Ferry himself, simply old. As one ages one finds himself living more and more in the moment, and not necessarily by choice. Life become dull as we find the only momentous thing ahead of us to be our own demise. Lacking energy and, very often, a purpose, we are left with little else to do but peer out our windows and create our own little dramas. Mr. Ferry's brilliance gives him Dante, Shakespeare, and at least the entire catalog of well-known poetry to draw from. <br /><br />I know for sure is that there is not a word in Ferry's work which is there without purpose. <br />Epistemology, while a useful tool in his poetry, is little more than that in this poem. He is simply a man looking out the window and, having already spoken with mild contempt for Mr. Wrenn and his ridiculous pug, has perhaps coalesced with them as he anticipates his own mortality.<br /><br />(Charette, btw, was a well-known and much loved store, providing art and drafting materials to the Boston area. As Ferry points out, it has since closed. None of this negates your points, as I'm sure the meaning of the word was not unfamiliar to Mr. Ferry)<br /><br />These are just my thoughts, and whether they are worthy or not is for you to consider. I appreciate having a forum to which to offer them.<br /><br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15838183159673172908noreply@blogger.com