Dwell not too much on that which no one knows!

Lines riffing on "Denk nicht zuviel von dem was keiner weiss!" by Stefan George, in Der Stern des Bundes ("The Star of the Covenant") (1914)

Dwell not too much on that which no one knows!

Life's pictured sense is inexplicable.

The wild swan shot and in the courtyard kept

Awhile, nursing a useless crippled wing,

Evoked—you said—some related thing:

Old kin of yours, or long-forgotten pet.

No fudged ressentiment or gratitude

For your care it ever showed. . . The end came

Quickly, and its fading eye rebuked

That last intrusion in the thingly game.

Envoi

Thingly's a term of art.

Res ipsa loquitur.

The poet hitched to the cart,

God knows what might occur!

Cover image: Jan Asselijn, The Threatened Swan (De bedreigde zwaan), oil on canvas (1650), Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Sunday, April 13, 2025