From: LouisFors <LouisFors@aol.com>
Message-Id: <4f97c954.351876f4@aol.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1998 22:16:02 EST
To: emweb@fmgmt.mgmt.utoronto.ca
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Subject: Re: # 650 and "begun"
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In a message dated 98-03-24 11:51:39 EST, Karin wrote:

> Not sure if this has anything to do with anything, but it came into my
>  head: the poem is about the perception of time when one is in pain. Maybe
>  this tense-play on the verb "begin" (putting it in a different past tense
>  than we expect, thereby drawing our attention to the tense, and an
>  ungrammatical -- or not standarly grammatical-- perception of the past in
>  the poem's syntax) is an example of what I like to think of as the "loose
>  tooth"  technique in ED's poems -- you know how when you have a tooth
>  loose you kind of feel compelled to keep worrying it with your tongue? I
>  think Dickinson kind of does this with her tweaked grammar sometimes, to
>  draw attention to important ideas. 
>  
>  Just a pre-caffeine, morning thought.
>  
>  Karin

Louis responded:

>I, for one, willl never read #650 again, or many other ED poems, without
>thinking of the "loose tooth" theory.

Karin rebounded:

I hope that's not a bad thing!
:-)

And Louis states:

Nope, it's a great critical tool!  I love it.  Wish I were teaching poetry,
although I'd be quite incompetent to do that.  Over and out.