CANTO ONE: Reflections Of A Silky-Tailed Slain

[Paul Mackin]

On Wed, 2003-07-23 at 08:10, Tim Strzechowski wrote:
> I disagree.
> 
> What the *poet* has chosen for his purposes is "slain."  What the
> *commentator* has *interpreted* (not "corrected") this word as is "knocking
> itself out."


The important thing is that knocking oneself out or being knocked out
never implies that death has occurred. (sometimes death occurs LATER)

In my experience (not extensive admittedly but not entirely negligible
either) it's more common for birds to survive crashes into windows than
for them to die or be seriously injured. 

The bird will lie in apparent death for a minute or so, then flutter its
wings and fly off. Provided a cat is not in the vicinity.

It's a near death experience, such as Shade experienced on two
occasions.


The word "slain" is used by Shade because it's too hard to find a
dignified rhyme for knocked out.


P.