V-2nd, C 5 "The Alligator was Pinto"

[Joseph Tracy]

Agree, one of the best English poems ever written, reminiscent of the  
best Celtic nature poems. By contrast there is something immensely  
sad about this tired pinto gator, blood all too predictably spilt   
formless into the sewage and the dark void.

I wonder if there is an intentional connection to the resistance of  
Ignatius and the avid sacrificial compliance of Veronica and these  
seemingly conflicted aspects of the alligator. Also is Pynchon  
working with and twisting archetypal christian images of sacrifice,  
innocence and redemption?
On Aug 16, 2010, at 10:08 PM, alice wellintown wrote:

> Pinto, to a Porto Rican circa 1960 means dick, as in moby. Also pied.
>
> One of the most beautiful poems in the language is GMH's "Pied Beauty"
>
> But P's coco dee yo is not sublime or mysterious or anything Rikean.
>
> Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89).
>
> Pied Beauty
>
>
> GLORY be to God for dappled things—
>   For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
>     For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
> Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
>   Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;         5
>     And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.
>
> All things counter, original, spare, strange;
>   Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
>     With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
> He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:         10
>                   Praise him.
>
>
>
> On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 10:45 AM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>  
> wrote:
>>
>> Josepth Tracy wrote:
>> "The alligator was Pinto"
>>
>> I once had a job where a perk was membership in a workout club.  
>> While there I
>> met a man who was un-mixed race. Black and white parents , but he  
>> was pinto, all
>> over. Could such a one be president? What do you call such. He was  
>> handsome and
>> had a remarkable sense of humor.
>>
>> wow, what a question. A: No...
>>
>> Misc. In As You Like It, the deer in the Arden forest are  
>> described as "poor
>> dappled fools"....
>>
>>
>>
>>