Page 41

By Jack Joseph Smith

Never Gone All is well,, so good, that we fear change We know romantic ideas brought us here But they will never come after us, so we will make ourselves classic, and keep it that way When there is a mouse in the house, there arn't any rats,, and when there is ever one rat in the sewer, your still somewhat safe from the gas Let structure dismantle gradually, or it will colapse The chicken or the egg Romantic thought will always appear on its own

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

Romantic ideas are admitted as the force that brought us here, even while the poem argues for restraint, classic form, and slow dismantling.

The page stages change as a structural problem: romance brings the speaker here, classic form contains it, and gradual dismantling prevents collapse. The mouse, rats, gas, and chicken-or-egg images make emotional form feel domestic and dangerous at once.

Claude

'Never Gone' opens on uneasy comfort - 'All is well,, so good, that we fear change' - and admits 'We know romantic ideas brought us here,' yet 'they will never come after us, / so we will make ourselves classic.' Its argument arrives through domestic pest-logic: 'When there is a mouse in the house, / there arn't any rats,' and even 'one rat in the sewer' keeps you 'somewhat safe from the gas.' The counsel is managed decay - 'Let structure dismantle gradually, / or it will colapse' - before the reassuring close that 'Romantic thought will always / appear on its own.' Form and restraint are applied to the very energy that began things. Source spellings 'arn't,' 'your,' and 'colapse' are preserved.