Five.
A substantial part of poetry I've read are love poems. A lot of them sing of having found your other half, resulting in feeling only whole now that love is found. Rightly so, of course, for it is an amazing experience, and as far as I am concenrned there will never be enough poems on the subject.
What really got me here is the picture of the wings, that I've not seen before. We all know a bird can't fly with only one wing. So seperately the lovers will not be able to fly, only joined they can lift from the earth. Breathtakingly beatiful.

Six.
Quite a politcal one with 'our' stories vs. 'their' wicked mind. I like the positive side of Ganymede's story that you picked out in all the men-loving sorrow: he probably did enjoy his life as wine-pourer to the gods. A happy ending after all.

On 01/27/2016 06:07 AM, J.HunterDunn said:

Five.

A substantial part of poetry I've read are love poems. A lot of them sing of having found your other half, resulting in feeling only whole now that love is found. Rightly so, of course, for it is an amazing experience, and as far as I am concenrned there will never be enough poems on the subject.

What really got me here is the picture of the wings, that I've not seen before. We all know a bird can't fly with only one wing. So seperately the lovers will not be able to fly, only joined they can lift from the earth. Breathtakingly beatiful.

 

Six.

Quite a politcal one with 'our' stories vs. 'their' wicked mind. I like the positive side of Ganymede's story that you picked out in all the men-loving sorrow: he probably did enjoy his life as wine-pourer to the gods. A happy ending after all.

Thank you, Peter! 'Political' I can take in the sense of outside the control of the poet and beloved, so yes, No. 6 asks why there is a different standard for LGBT people – but of course, it uses Classical modes to refer to recent times

There is a running context for these poems, and often it shows as a recurring theme. For example, the sonnets numbered in the 50s have an architectural subcurrent which reappears within them. I did not plan that, but 'went with it' and clearly saw it afterwards.

So too with these early sonnets. There is a Classical context in which No. 5 sits in relations to the poems around it, and I like thinking about all the references 'tucked' away in this sonnet.

Thanks for support. I appreciate it immensely.