That's amazing - I just posted a query under this title, edited it a couple of times and, on the second edit realized I might find the poem if I changed the tensee of the line I remembered - so I did - here it is:

In the Smoking Car

The eyelids meet. He'll catch a little nap.
The grizzled, crew-cut head drops to his chest.
It shakes above the briefcase on his lap.
Close voices breathe, "Poor sweet, he did his best."

"Poor sweet, poor sweet," the bird-hushed glades repeat,
Through which in quiet pomp his litter goes,
Carried by native girls with naked feet.
A sighing stream concurs in his repose.

Could he but think, he might recall to mind
The righteous mutiny or sudden gale
That beached him here; the dear ones left behind ...
So near the ending, he forgets the tale.

Were he to lift his eyelids now, he might
Behold his maiden porters, brown and bare.
But even here he has no appetite.
It is enough to know that they are there.

Enough that now a honeyed music swells,
The gentle, mossed declivities begin,
And the whole air is full of flower-smells.
Failure, the longed-for valley, takes him in.

-- Richard Wilbur
However, when I go back to Lost Quotes to post this news, the thread isn't there!! Will post this to see what happens

Thanks for posting anyway, Marian ! A good poem, which I hadn't seen before. Maybe Les can put the two threads together.

How do you interpret the 'righteous mutiny' metaphor in S3? Whose mutiny? And why righteous?

Ian



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/2006 06:23AM by IanB.

Fletcher Christian? He might have seen his mutiny as righteous if he thought of the men as married to the island ladies.

I'm not Pam, I'm Marian! It has to be a righteous mutiny so that he's there due to circumstances beyond his control and can just lie back and enjoy it. He doesn't want to spoil it by having done something wrong to get there - run away from his responsibilities etc. But today he is too tired to justify getting there. It's his favourite fantasy but he's too tired to start it at the beginning with the tedious bits.

Sorry, Marian. I have corrected your name in my post. It was at 1.30am for me. I must have been hallucinating !

Maybe he was sacked because he took the side of the female secretaries in a dispute with a harsh boss over working conditions. The gale was management's anger. He's too old to have any hope of finding a new job. So his career has failed, which in some ways is a relief ('longed for') because he doesn't have to make the effort any more. He takes comfort in fantasy.

Ian



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/2006 06:44AM by IanB.