The document is a poem titled "Legal Reform" published in Poetry magazine in 1955. It consists of three sections where the speaker discusses how they have reformed themselves through establishing their own laws and serving their own sentence. They find happiness in working hard within the confines of their self-imposed rules and regulations. The poem examines the idea of finding freedom and redemption through self-governance and discipline.
The document is a poem titled "Legal Reform" published in Poetry magazine in 1955. It consists of three sections where the speaker discusses how they have reformed themselves through establishing their own laws and serving their own sentence. They find happiness in working hard within the confines of their self-imposed rules and regulations. The poem examines the idea of finding freedom and redemption through self-governance and discipline.
The document is a poem titled "Legal Reform" published in Poetry magazine in 1955. It consists of three sections where the speaker discusses how they have reformed themselves through establishing their own laws and serving their own sentence. They find happiness in working hard within the confines of their self-imposed rules and regulations. The poem examines the idea of finding freedom and redemption through self-governance and discipline.
The document is a poem titled "Legal Reform" published in Poetry magazine in 1955. It consists of three sections where the speaker discusses how they have reformed themselves through establishing their own laws and serving their own sentence. They find happiness in working hard within the confines of their self-imposed rules and regulations. The poem examines the idea of finding freedom and redemption through self-governance and discipline.
Source: Poetry, Vol. 86, No. 3 (Jun., 1955), pp. 134-135 Published by: Poetry Foundation Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20585718 Accessed: 15-09-2021 17:55 UTC
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This content downloaded from 182.64.50.195 on Wed, 15 Sep 2021 17:55:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms P O E T R Y
And turned upon the flooding relative,
What could I do but start the quest once more Towards the terrible cave in which I live, The absolute prison where chance thrust me before I built it round me on my study floor; What could I do but seek the synthesis As each man does, of what his nature is?
Knowing the end to movement, I will shrink
From movement not for its own wilful sake. -How can a man live, and not act or think Without an end? But I must act, and make The meaning in each movement that I take. Rook, bee, you are the whole and not a part. This is an end, and yet another start.
LEGAL REFORM
Condemned to life, a happier condemnation
Than I deserved, I serve my sentence full, Clasping it to me at each indication That this time love is not the paradox By which, whatever it contains, my cell Contains the absolute, because it locks.
134
This content downloaded from 182.64.50.195 on Wed, 15 Sep 2021 17:55:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms THOM GUNN
It all led up to this, a simple law
Passed by ourselves, which holds me in its power. Not till I stopped the theft of all I saw Just for the having's sake, could it be passed. Now I refer disposal of each hour To this, a steady precedent at last.
MIy sentence stipulated exercise
Painful and lonely in the walks of death With twittering clouds of spirits, still there lies Beneath the common talk my single hope: I must get back inside the cage of breath For absence twitches on the loosened rope.
Marched off to happiness, I quarry stone
Hour after hour, and sweat my past away. Already I have made working alone Notable excavations, and the guard, Turning desire, who eyes me all the day, Has no use for his whip, I work so hard.
Condemned to hope, to happiness, to life,
Condemned to shift in your enclosing eyes, I soon correct those former notions rife Among the innocent, or fetter-maimed. For law is in our hands, I realise: The sentence is, condemned to be condemned.
135
This content downloaded from 182.64.50.195 on Wed, 15 Sep 2021 17:55:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Letter of Dissolution Author(s) : Jacques Lacan and Jeffrey Mehlman Source: October, Vol. 40, Television (Spring, 1987), Pp. 128-130 Published By: The MIT Press Accessed: 10-06-2020 15:50 UTC
