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: Dear Rob: : You wrote (in part): : : My remaining difficulty is that in both your readings, "the sacred hilltops : : whitening in heaven" is part of the compound subject for "move." That seems : : odd. Certainly the "light" and the "waters nightlong wakeful" work that way; : : but it's not clear to me in what sense the hilltops move. Maybe (appear to) : : move because of the light stealing over them. . . . : : Your speculation makes sense to me--it's what : I had in mind, as it's the most straightforward : meaning that the syntax suggests. As for the : poem's success--that's another issue. I like the : poem a great deal, but it I think Tim is right : that Jeffers isn't yet fully mature here, is still : groping around a bit. At any rate, I read : the passage as an ecstatic outpouring, which : justifies its syntactical murk by its feeling-- : among other things, it shows a clear debt to the Romantics. : The only place I'd disagree with Tim is on the : source of that syntactical torture, which seems : less like typical contemporary poetic language, : and more like an imitation of Latin to me (although : there's no reason both couldn't be involved). : Best, : David J. Rothman

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