Jane DardsPoetry to be read and poetry to be performed |
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"The other point of view" was first published in Orbis #150, Winter/Spring 2010 Author's comments about the poem:This poem is a villanelle. It presents the "other point of view" to that expressed in Dylan Thomas' famous villanelle, Do not go gentle into that good night. From the receiving end, as you might say. I felt that the repetitive form needed a subject that was suited to persuasive insistence. And most of all I wanted the two refrain lines, that appear separately throughout the poem, to mean something rather different when they were placed together at the end. So that, at the start of the poem, it feels that the words are spoken by a comforter. But, as the poem progresses, the tone slowly changes, until in the last stanza the identity of the speaker becomes clear. (At any rate, I'd like to think that it becomes clear, but lots of people seem to miss the point - hence this explanation.) In this version, the last few words are in capital letters. The Editor of Orbis didn't use them in the printed version, as she felt that it was a bit over the top. But I've used them here as a bit of an extra hint - at least for Terry Pratchett fans. When you've got to the end and worked it out, you should read it again from the beginning with your new knowledge. A bit like a whodunnit, perhaps. |
