Page 47 - The Irony Board
P. 47
Into the Body
Like water in a glass
Going to extremes
You get sloppy
And find your
Level lowered.
The problem of flaming youth is recast here in aqueous terms.
Strong feelings of a “romantic” character push young people against
prudent limits of physical safety in search of transcendent
experience. The qualities of the great artist, explorer, or activist are
distorted in our mythology to include needless risk-taking. The result
of these dangerous excursions can be permanent injury, an ironical
lessening of creative or motor capacities. The simile of fluid sloshing
over the top of its concave container refers to that loss of substance;
the displacement of the first two lines mimics waves of extremism.
The pun depends upon mental punctuation: a comma may be placed
at the end of the first or the second line.
45
