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Question: Can anyone interpret this poem!? Crapulous Impressions by Huxley!?
Still life, still life…the high-lights shine
Hard and sharp on the bottles: the wine
Stands firmly solid in the glasses,
Smooth yellow ice, through which there passes
The lamp's bright pencil of down-struck light!.
The fruits metallically gleam,
Globey in their heaped-up bowl,
And there are faces against the night
Of the outer room - faces that seem
Part of this still, still life…they've lost their soul!.
And amongst these frozen faces you smiled,
Surprised, surprisingly, like a child:
And out of the frozen welter of sound
Your voice came quietly, quietly!.
"What about God!?" you said!. "I have found
Much to be said for Totality!.
All, I take it, is God: God's all -
This bottle, for instance…" I recall,
Dimly, that you took God by the neck -
God-in-the-bottle - and pushed Him across:
But I, without a moment's loss
Moved God-in-the-salt in front and shouted: "Check!"Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
The still life part is so focused on painting a picture of the bar!. Reflections seem to be the focus!. Reflections leading to light which could also mean truth!. Those in the still, still life aren't reflecting, and therefore have lost their souls!.
Then one smile comes from the faces--someone who has been reflecting!. Seeing God in everything!. Then grabbing God and pushing him across as if to share!.
The narrator refuses, blocking God in the bottle with God in the salt and shouts "Check!" Thereby ending the reflections and most likely returning them to their still, still life!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
the wine,
Smooth yellow ice, through which there passes
The lamp’s bright pencil of down-struck light!.
it's "dawn-struck" not "down-struck"!. It means a very thin beam of light (thin like a pencil) passing through the wine!. "Dawn-struck" means that the light is created by the dawn (sunrise)!.
sorry i couldnt help with more!Www@QuestionHome@Com
IMHO-
It's over-structured, like most of Huxley's work, and the theme is ambiguous on purpose!.
God is everywhere, God is nowhere!.!.!.!.!.blah!.!.!.blah!.!.!.blah!.!.!.
"Check!" some tawdry reference to Chess being a metaphor for life itself!.!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
his bottle is god!.
god is the bottle
god is the sunlight
or it could mean he drinks to much that he sees things nobody else does!.!.!.!.
check might mean hes at a resturant and getting the check after he drank everything lolWww@QuestionHome@Com
it wants wineWww@QuestionHome@Com