The Outsider Appendix (Part III)

This is a continuation. To start at the beginning of the appendix, click here.
To read the original poem, click here here.

III. THE STARS WOULD BE SHINING

174-176. Cf. Puccini, Tosca:
E lucevan le stelle,
e olezzava la terra,
stridea l’uscio dell’orto
e un passo sfiorava la rena…

191. Cf. “Dragula,” Rob Zombie.

193. Cf. “Ozymandias of Egypt,” Shelley.

195. A unification of “18 Wheels on a Big Rig” by Stuart Mitchell and a website of no small notoriety.

199. Cf. “The Blind,” Baudelaire, 92.

216. Virgil, here neither the poet of the Aeneid or Dante’s hell/purgatory tour guide, is actually the primary character in the poem, central to its meaning. His self-immolation, pitiable and inevitable, will take on a heroic aspect, especially if one considers it in the context of a Ragnorak-like uprising, and with the inexplicable and cruel death of his amour, it is a startling indictment of the ‘divine.’

223. While the thematic repetition was not intentioned, it is interesting to compare imagery here with that of the snowy mansion in Part V, if one is so inclined.

250. Compare to Calpurnia in Julius Caesar.

262-272. Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses, xi, Orpheus.

273. Cf. Puccini, Tosca, II.

282. Most flowers have a representative meaning, as this one does.

IV. INNOCENCE IS DROWNED

312. The definitive account of Stone Creek’s debt to this semi-mythical muse (who had a flair for Faustian bargains) can be found in Bear Lester’s Essays from Stone Creek (Hardcore Utilitarian Press). Mr. Lester knows more about Classical Greek than I do about Modern English.

316. Cf. Psalms 46:9. The inclusion of so many biblical and Eastern religious passages in this text may puzzle those who know me, but then again God is not without a sense of humor.

For the last installment (honestly!) click here.