You Laugh Before You Cry Comments

This poem is a dialogue but it seems to encompass so much more than a one-on-one conversation. That's because the speaker has such a profound and varied grasp on the current situation and the articulate speech to cover so much of it. But it is a perilous and treacherous world he unfolds in the ODE, and only his verbal mastery keeps us from drowning in this flood of bad news. In some respects this line is crucial: WE RANT AND RAVE TO THE HEAVENS. I thought of Macduff in MACBETH mourning his children's murder: Did heaven look on and not take their part? Your poem uncovers a desperate world but doesn't whine or give up in despair. It's the verbal ingenuity and catalogue of virtues and solutions that make hope shine above the litany of complaints.