- COMMENTARY ON THE POEMS IN NOTRE DAME REVIEW

The two poems in this issue are linked by the spectral presence of a small boy through whose eyes both man-made and natural wonders are carefully observed. The boy is introduced at the start of the first poem and at the end of the second. “When the Boy Comes Back” took more than eight years to write; the first draft was titled “Schooldays” and started life as a simple list of now-extinct but formerly common mechanical devices from the school rooms of my youth. Active work on the poem resumed when I added the glass doorknob to the list and neared completion when I hit upon the image in the final couplet and the concept of the adult dreaming his way into recollection. 

In the second poem, “Euphoria”, the boy makes his appearance at the conclusion rather than the beginning of the poem so as to soften the philosophical tone with something more concrete and memory-driven. The phrase “a thing in the mind” speaks to the metaphysics of measurement and the specific influence of Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) on this poem and much of my work; as a result, I am careful to moderate my annual exposure to his poetry. Other autobiographical influences include my professional background as a scientist and my enthusiasm for sailing on the Chesapeake Bay. Of the scientists mentioned, the least familiar may be Albert A. Michelson  (1852-1931) who made the first accurate measurements of the speed of light, a finding critical to the development of Einstein’s theories.