VLVL2(8) Thickets of Alders I

[pfm2]

Well, since nobody asked, I'd better answer.

The reason I thought it appropriate to post the Graves
stuff here is that it's an example of how P jangles mythical/cultural
nerves
so effortlessly. I think we can assume that P has read Graves but even
if we
don't make that assumption, what Graves has written here captures the
nature of the "nerve jangling" that goes on when such icons are
introduced.

Hence, we can be sure that anyone who has been immersed in the European
culture
recognises these things without ever having read Graves. So, immediately
on
reading the passage:

"They had rounded a curve, and under the bright moon the forest fell
away and the land went sloping down in pastures and then thickets of
alder"

we're subsconciously aware of ideas of battle, fighting and bounding.

pfm