The Funeral of Mark Cecil

[Erthona]

Ditto to the rest of the criticism here, my problem with the poem is that it describes a more or less factual autobiographical account, yet the clarity of the account is muddy, but here is the main problem. Even if all the problems were resolved, I do not think I would still see a point to the poem. There are thousands of published autobiographical accounts of mental illness, not to mention the ten of thousand (probably more) on the web. So this is not fresh ground. Then comes the line that totally baffles me "For he saw himself as a Frenchman". What relevance does this have as opposed to "he was a Frenchmen". What is the line suppose to convey? If the mental illness aspect had already been setup, it might make more sense, although have no more meaning, but this is not the case. No, the writer needs to give more consideration to how the reader will perceive what has been written, rather than assume the reader knows what is in the writer's mind.


Best,

dale