On Bait

I like how the quest for appreciation takes shape in this remark from James Merrill. I can imagine the archness in the voice (Unfortunately I only have the print booklet from the Random House AudioBooks volume in the series "The Voice of the Poet" and it's not clear that these clever bits set in grey text boxes were part of the recording as one assumes the poems were). In any case one can hear the meaningful pause...

Think what one has to do to get a mass audience. I'd rather have one perfect reader. Why dynamite the pond in order to catch that single silver carp? Better to find a bait that only the carp will take. One still has plenty of choices. The carp at Fontainebleau were thought to swallow small children, whole.

What a blast!

And so for day 805
25.02.2009