* -He meets his wives; both loved, both loving, both
Jealous of one another. [1:Shade, Sybil & Hazel]
Fondling a changeless child, the flax-haired wife
Grieves on the brink of a remembered pond
Full of a dreamy sky. [2:Sybil & Hazel, pond=swamp]
Know of the head-on crash which on a wild
March night killed both the mother and the child?
[5:Pete Dean, Sybil and Hazel]
..................................... Know of the head-on crash which on a wild
March night killed both the mother and the child?
[5:Pete Dean, Sybil and Hazel]
To the list,
It would seem that no one recalls (or I suppose even believes) that I solved this puzzle already: Shade is remembering the other suicide in his life, that of his paramour (the so-called other wife) "in ballerina black" who "haunts lit 101" (presumably Shade's class). She committed suicide with her child by Shade by driving into oncoming traffic on another "wild march night." The Erl König is implicated by Shade, but he is himself the real villain of the piece.
I found this out by tracking down the "next babe" whose cries Aunt Maud lived to hear. If interested, please to consult the archives.
very peevishly,
Carolyn Kunin
All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.