Poetry · Chapter
Prenatal Plagiarism explained
A poetic meditation on prenatal existence, the archetypal origins of human emotion, and the uncertain foundations of ethics and form.
What happens
A poetic meditation on prenatal existence, the archetypal origins of human emotion, and the uncertain foundations of ethics and form.
Themes in this chapter
Childhood and Innocence
The poem explores prenatal and foetal states, evoking a pre-conscious, archetypal innocence before the imposition of social and ethical structures.
The Body and Mortality
References to 'Foetal buffoons', 'proto-form', and 'blind eyes' suggest the vulnerability and materiality of the body from its earliest formation.
Key passages
“In some Prenatal plagiarism Foetal buffoons Caught tricks — From archetypal pantomime Stringing emotions Looped aloft — For the blind eyes That Nature knows us with”
Before birth, we are mere imitations, foolish fetuses learning gestures from a primordial play, stringing up feelings for the blind gaze of Nature.
The poem critiques the idea of originality in human development, suggesting our emotions and actions are borrowed from archetypal patterns.
“What guaranty For the proto-form We fumble Our souvenir ethics to”
What assurance is there for the primal shape to which we awkwardly attach our inherited moral codes?
Questions the stability and validity of ethical systems derived from an uncertain, pre-formed origin.