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Comment 2 of 2, added on January 17th, 2010 at 10:32 AM.
The Castaway - Cowper
49: No poet wept him: but the page
50: Of narrative sincere;
...
59: But misery still delights to trace
60: Its semblance in another's case.
Cowper is telling the story of a drowned sailor. He writes that his "no poet wept him,but the narrative of [a] page..", and while the poet cannot (57) "give the melancholy theme a more enduring date" he writes: (59)But misery still delights to trace
(60)Its semblance in another's case.
The author is trying to compare his own figurative drowning (Cowper was known to have suffered from depression, with the physical drowning of the sailor).
Hence: (65) We perish'd, each alone:
(65) But I beneath a rougher sea,
(66) And whelm'd in deeper gulfs than he.
Grace
Grace from United States
Comment 1 of 2, added on September 9th, 2008 at 7:20 AM.
I am teaching this poem today and am puzzled by it.
The "I" in the first stanza seems to be the sailer who
will drown, but it is not put in quotes. There is an
I in the last stanza who seems to be the author
who is drowning psychologically -- but it is pluralized, "we" and put in the past tense.
It's either brilliantly constructed or confusing.
Help!
Professor HR Wolf/SUNY at Buffalo
Dr. Howard R. Wolf from United States
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49: No poet wept him: but the page
50: Of narrative sincere;
...
59: But misery still delights to trace
60: Its semblance in another's case.
Cowper is telling the story of a drowned sailor. He writes that his "no poet wept him,but the narrative of [a] page..", and while the poet cannot (57) "give the melancholy theme a more enduring date" he writes: (59)But misery still delights to trace
(60)Its semblance in another's case.
The author is trying to compare his own figurative drowning (Cowper was known to have suffered from depression, with the physical drowning of the sailor).
Hence: (65) We perish'd, each alone:
(65) But I beneath a rougher sea,
(66) And whelm'd in deeper gulfs than he.
Grace
Grace from United States