I cannot make my mind run as I would;
I cannot make it sleep by my command
Nor can I order it to think it good
To have my love live in a distant land.
In vain I tell it of the wondrous things
I shall achieve in time spent far away;
By day, to such my self-cognition clings
But by the sky and clock it is not day.
In such a time as this, I cannot force
My mind from where it would all day remain
Did I not channel it a safer course
To keep it, half the time, a working brain.
But as night falls, it turns again to her
And to her side, by which I wish I were.
I like how these two lines made the confusion obvious:
ReplyDeleteDid I not channel it a safer course
To keep it, half the time, a working brain.
I didn't get the broader metaphor, though, if there is one. Is the poem itself supposed to be a "tic"?
The idea of the title is taken from the duality of "tick/tock" used to express the halved nature of the experience (and of course, to reference the clock/time of day/time references).
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