I’ve been re-reading some of the poems set for AS with a
home / house / interior theme and one of the questions I asked was whether any
of the poems could be re-written in the style of another poem from the group. I
am reminded at this point of the game in ‘I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue’ where a
panellist has to sing the lyrics of one song to the tune of another.
Having raised the question, I’m now intrigued. And I don’t like to set challenges which I’m
not prepared to try myself…
So, my first attempt is to consider Finlay’s surreal poem
and see if there is any way it might be ‘translated’ into MacNiece’s very
spare, clipped style.
Indoors the smell of dried fish. Outdoors
The crescent moon in the blank of night.
Indoors the click of crab pincers. Outdoors
The sea of lobster pots…
Perhaps ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ would be better and keep the
connection without sounding quite so much like the original. I’d like to keep some sense of the character’s
locked away feelings. The lobsters imprisoned in the lobster traps?
