The Non-Works
of
Samuel Tyldsley
Notes
'Tis thy device
devides thee so;
'Tis by thy deeds
thou art undone,
Would'st thou feign keep
what ne'er was thine?
The illustration is a watercolor. The sky is blue and is textured
with high misty clouds, but there is no well- defined detail. The
land is rolling hills, but is barren. There is no vegetation on it and
there are no stones and no water. The earth is not even a yellow
sand. It is a brown dirt. Far in the distance, a village sits
in the valley. Almost as far off is the gallows on a hilltop overlooking
the village. In the foreground is a lone, bare tree. Beneath
it sits a man. He is dressed in brown and beside him is the black,
hangman's hood.
The poem, which hovers in the sky, is written in the red angular script.
The spelling of "devides" instead of "divides" in the second line is interesting.
I don't think it is merely to make the word appear more similar to the
word "device", as has been the accepted interpretation. I think this
spelling is used to call to mind both the words "dev" (divine being in
Hinduism and Buddhism) and "devil". It is the moral conflict which
I think the voice is pointing to as self-inflicted. It is the blue
voice's own values that cause him the agony described in the previous poem.
It is the deeds he commits of his own choice that lead to his downfall.
The
last two lines again bring up for discussion man's fleeting mortality.
Three separate ideas are represented by the hangman. He represents
the laws which the villagers have set down. He represents the free
will of people who will either obey or violate those laws. Thirdly,
he represents mortality, the end of a life which can never be
owned, only borrowed.
The song playing
is Queen's "Killer Queen". It was found at The
Midi Jukebox.
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