does anyone have an explication of this?
is he mocking st francis?
...the harvard classicism of amb lowell
(&, by extension, possum) of previous "ritratto"?
...yeats' "image out of spiritus mundi"?
...gertrude stein?
...america?
...is it just the stilted witticism of snobbery?
...what is the exact content of "the thought"?

does anyone have a firm fix on it?

bob