Yes. And it was the language itself that really lodged in my mind --- I know this was my first encounter with the phrase "brown study," the strangeness of which, reading it for the first time, I still remember so vividly. And "vexed," too. Secondarily I guess I thought, "Wow, that's a sad poem," but it's the words that recur to me so strikingly, not the emotion.
Similar experience with "brown study." I've been told that it was once a common Southern expression but I remember puzzling over it with my college roommate, both of us born and raised in the Deep South, and neither of us had heard it before.
This has been one of my favorites since I was in high school. I was amazed how such plain, quiet language could break my heart.
Yes. And it was the language itself that really lodged in my mind --- I know this was my first encounter with the phrase "brown study," the strangeness of which, reading it for the first time, I still remember so vividly. And "vexed," too. Secondarily I guess I thought, "Wow, that's a sad poem," but it's the words that recur to me so strikingly, not the emotion.
Similar experience with "brown study." I've been told that it was once a common Southern expression but I remember puzzling over it with my college roommate, both of us born and raised in the Deep South, and neither of us had heard it before.
His "Dead Boy" was the same for me.