R.S.Gwynn ( to JM's "Hazel Shade can never function
as an inspiring Muse"): "... Hazel, chaste daughter of god-like Shade
and his constant memory, Sybil, may in fact fit the bill as an "odd
versipel." Of course, his usual muse is Sybil, wearing overalls while she
gardens. Whitman said that the American muse ought to be 'installed among
the kitchenware'."
JM: If a muse in
overalls repeats words over and over while the poet is composing in his
mind, with no pen in hand, Shade's other muse, the versipel, is
equally independent of pen and paper, for she remains with
him everywhere. Nevertheless, the two processes ( although both belong
to Shade's "method A") are completely distinct.
Would "versipel" serve to indicate
Shade's dreamy musings while paring nails and considering a misprint?
Perhaps not since when, in parallel to
"versipel," he mentions Sybil, he writes: "One
heard a woman’s dress/ Rustle in days of yore. I’ve often
caught/ The sound and sense of your approaching thought"
and I suppose
he means that he carries his love for Sybil in his mind and soul* at all
times - or else, he is identified with her (a feminine streak should
he merely be reacting to the silken "liquefaction" of
an ancient poem).**
Anyway,
feeling inspired by Sybil is different from being insufflated by an
ungainly daughter's "ghost"...
.........................................................................
* - Robert Frost's "countless silken ties of love and
thought" ( The Silken Tent) and Robert Herrick's vibrating lines of
yore ( Upon Julia's Clothes).
** - A third option would
have Shade pointing to an American muse gardening away (as in
R.S.Gwynn's vision of Sybil in overalls following Whitman's
interesting definition).