Leap before you look

I enjoyed the rhythm, language and style of this, but haven’t any idea what it ‘means’. The title is obviously a clue and hence Sue is presumably on the right track. Apparently Auden often said that metre and rhyme led him down unexpected paths to thoughts he wouldn’t otherwise have had (I quote from the Habit of Art programme – which we went to see last night). I know absolutely nothing about poetry, but have always felt that if the rhyme dictates content, as it so often seems to do, then it is verse not poetry. But perhaps Auden is saying that rhyming is a way of breaking out of one’s own thoughts and thinking new ones – quite a challenging idea.

One bit of this does speak to me, though I disagree with it: ‘to rejoice when no-one else is there/ is even harder than it is to weep;’. The natural world frequently causes me to rejoice alone – I find it impossible not to – and yes, sometimes to weep as well.