A+Visit+to+Bloomsbury

“Stanzas in Bloomsbury” (pg 117) seems to offer us so much information before the actual poem even begins.First I was curious about Bloomsbury and Wikipedia told me that Ok, one piece of knowledge to possibly help me fully understand this poem. It relates to the hoity-toity writers!
 * is an area of central [|London] in the south of the [|London Borough of Camden], developed by the Russell family in the 17th and 18th centuries into a fashionable residential area. It is notable for its array of [|gardened squares],[|[1]] its literary connections (exemplified by the [|Bloomsbury Group]), and its numerous hospitals and academic institutions.

Then we have parenthesis below the title creating a relationship between a Mrs. Woolf and Lord Byron.I know Lord Byron is a Romantic poet, but the only Woolf I know would be Virginia Woolf. Is this referencing herIs Howard then writing a poem from her viewpoint?Even before the poem itself begins I have questions.

Then there is a quote. Of course it is a vague quote relating to the mind and to death.That always can be interpreted different ways. I Googled the quote and found out that it’s from Virginia Woolf when she was thinking about writing a novel about Byron. Well, that clears up what the parenthesis mean…

But how does all of this relate to the poem? It all just seems like a bunch of disjointed information. I can’t see the connection. The poem itself is hard to understand, I couldn’t tell you what it’s about. It starts with some vague “they” and continues with an utter lack of punctuation and some narrator. Is the narrator Howard? Is it Woolf? Is it just some random narrator I’m not trying to put this poem down or discredit it, I just don’t understand! 1204165905

My thoughts on this poem are that the two stanzas are not within the same story line really; which would make sense with the title of this poem, there are two stanzas "in Bloomsbury." I mean the first stanza seems to be fictional, while the second one seems to be more of a narration, Howard's thoughts and advice to the reader. I do not think that Woolf or Howard was on a search for treasure in Egypt or anything, especially to find honey, no wait, the remnants of a man's body! The second stanza has a completely different tone and point of view, it is written in a different person. The second stanza seems to be directed to the reader, "just conceive living your life in fear of drying up and on command plunging from the walls though haven't envisaged that fate for myself enticed with hope of inevitable paradise. . ." I'm assuming Howard is talking here to us about all of the thoughts going through his head, like he's trying to have a conversation with us. He asks us questions, thanks us, tells us about his journey as a writer, and even makes assertions on life. Wow! To me that seems like a lot to fin into one stanza, but he does it. Again, it sounds like he's rambling to us in person, not in any way connected with the first stanza as far as person or setting. The second stanza is the only way that I see a connection with Woolf. It seems to me as if the first stanza is a showing, to Woolf perhaps, of his writing capabilities, and the second stanza are his own personal thoughts directed towards her. 1204185707

This poem completely confused me, too. I had to read it about 3 times to even sort of understand it. I'm not quite sure why it relates to the quote at the top, but I'll give it a shot: So in the quote, Woolf talks about how she has brainstormed and gathered up a bunch of information about this character she wants to write about (Lord Byron), but she ends up never writing about him because a certain something happened all of a sudden that made her abandon the idea; thus, the character "died." In the second stanza, I think that Howard explores this idea of how a writer develops a character. He says that he as a writer is completely free to "write out everything that's in [his] head," and had complete control over a character's actions, even "ordering this one or that to leap to his doom" if he wanted to. But then in the next line, he second-guesses himself: "Though suppose what's in my head becomes absurd for the entertainemnt of others[?]" Here, he questions the actions he chose for his character to undergo because he is not sure if those who will read his story will like what he made the character do or not. This is where it connects back to the quote: his second-guessing might ultimately lead to the figurative death of the character if he decides to just abandon the idea altogether, like Woolf did with Lord Byron. Does any of this make sense? 1204239213

For your consideration: what if the voice in **both** stanzas is Woolf's?1204467271