Page 15

Addressing `MURTY,` the speaker says love has altered his sense of beauty, unsettled his old confidence as a poet, and left him resisting a different kind of submission.

The restored closing lines matter because they change the page from a brief confession into a small vow. `Wonder drips from me` makes awe bodily, but `My mouth though tight / can never be a slave` adds resistance and pride, so the poem becomes both vulnerable and defiant.

A short address to `Morty` — `My mind never slipped to beauty / since I saw you`, confessing he is no longer good as a poet. A rare page where the speaker names a specific loss of craft.