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Wed, 23 Aug 2000 11:56:47 -0400 |
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University of Maine |
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I haven't been following the "green casques" thread very closely, and
I've erased a good many messages, so someone may have made this point
already. But the association of the green casques with army helmets
seems to me totally wrong. I have always associated the "Paquin"
passage with the final lines of Canto LXXX, five pages previous:
as the young lizard extends his leopard spots
along the grass-blade seeking the green midge half an ant-size
[then five lines about London]
and if her green elegance
remains on this side of my rain ditch
puss lizard will lunch on some other T-bone
sunset grand couturier.
We have here an association of "green" with "elegance," and Paquin was
in fact a couturier. A midge is a small fly, and its closed wings might
look like a "casque." But I also think that Carroll Terrell is correct
in association the green casque with the cocoon from which the wasp
emerges, in Canto LXXXIII.
Burt Hatlen
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