From: LouisFors <LouisFors@aol.com>
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Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 12:46:48 EDT
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Subject: # 1393
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Marilyn wrote a few days ago, in the poems yes/no discussion:

<snip> 

>  #1393
>  
>  Lay this Laurel on the One
>  Too intrinsic for Renown -
>  Laurel - veil your deathless tree -
>  Him you chasten, that is He!
>  
>  ---------
>  What poet was more "intrinsic," more spurned "Renown"? Whose "Laurel" 
>  was more veiled? Who more chastened by the comingled joy/sorrow of 
>  longing? The last line's another humble use of the generic masculine 
>  pronoun: I think what she would have written if she'd been as 
>  egotistical as most writers, was "Her you chasten that is She!" In 
>  any case, though the poet in the poem is too intrinsic for reknown, 
>  and even though the laurel is veiled, that laurel IS placed on the 
>  poet's brow.
>  
<snip>

This has nothing to do with the conversation about poems or letters.  I found
1393 a tough poem. I understand Marilyn's reading, but I am still haunted by
other possibilities.  Here is an alternate *inquiry* into 1393, filled with
questions.

Lay this Laurel on the One
Too intrinsic for Renown --
      [This instruction does indeed ask that the laurel be
        given to the honest, the inward, the genuine one,
        who won't gain renown.]

Laurel -- veil your deathless tree --
Him you chasten, that is He!
     [This instruction, addressed at laurel, switches
       the subject, and asks that *your* deathless tree
       be veiled.  (Laurel, according to Webster (1828)
       grows on the Bay Tree.)  Then, in a strong change
       in tone, laurel is instructed to punish "Him." Who is
       Him/He? I'm not sure Him/He is the instrinsic one
       of line 2.  The speaker seems to have switched to
       a larger arena--perhaps nature--in the last two lines, 
       in which case Him/He *might* be a stinging reference to 
       God. Is "tree" emblematic of nature?  It is difficult 
       for me to see "tree" referring to a woman or man.
       
Paraphrasing Ben a few days ago, with respect to another poem, I keep trying
to make the poem clear to myself, and then things vaporize.  Can anybody help,
or put me out of my pain?

Louis Forsdale