George places an immense amount of emphasis on that one word (us), and thereby on the importance of he and Mary remaining together, of being numerous. And he does so fully aware of the uncertainty and the risk of failure—“or we drown.”
Thanks for the read. Life is more weatherable as an us, not a "me," and poems can be this direct live wire to transmit that reminder, not in interrogatives or commands, but in suggestions, gradual, increasing, until magically moving one's emotional compass to the point where there can be no doubt except that the feeling this art object elicited in you is The Truth. For this one, the Truth is that Us is greater than Me.
This was a nice read. A line that struck me, given the forced march to insanity that we’ve been experiencing in recent years:
“[Oppen] was wary of the idea that every aspect of a life should conform to a coherent political-aesthetic vision or ideology, a form of didacticism that has long been a strong undercurrent in American culture.”
Why can't we just accept that it takes time and effort to create good content and that paying for that content, is expected. I mean I'm not sure the alternative with outline is any better imho (https://imgur.com/OuDudVL).
Personally I never visit any paywall-ed websites. I agree with you there is time and effort behind the content, I get that.
The issue is that when posting to HN you can't expect everyone visiting to also have a payed subscription. It's a bit annoying because more and more posts on HN seem to assume that's the case.
Thanks for the read. Life is more weatherable as an us, not a "me," and poems can be this direct live wire to transmit that reminder, not in interrogatives or commands, but in suggestions, gradual, increasing, until magically moving one's emotional compass to the point where there can be no doubt except that the feeling this art object elicited in you is The Truth. For this one, the Truth is that Us is greater than Me.