Constantly Risking Absurdity

Question 1

Constantly risking absurdity (4)

Answer 1

• Poets vs. acrobats
• figurative death vs. literal death
• contrary to all reason or common sense
• to achieve uniqueness

Question 2

and death

Answer 2

-

Question 3

whenever he performs

Answer 3

-

Question 4

above the heads (2)

Answer 4

• In Awe

- looks like a deity

Question 5

of his audience (1)

Answer 5

• the poet challenges his audience to make them think

Question 6

the poet like an acrobat (2)

Answer 6

• Comparison

- simile developed into a sustained or extended metaphor

Question 7

climbs on rime (3)

Answer 7

• ‘Rhyme’ or ‘frost’
• risk
• devised

Question 8

to a high wire of his own making (1)

Answer 8

• to a performance of their own

Question 9

and balancing on eyebeams (3)

Answer 9

• staring / attention of the audience
• pressure
• relates to a balance beam such as in acrobatics ( a sense of suspension)

Question 10

above a sea of faces (1)

Answer 10

• a large audience

Question 11

paces his way

Answer 11

-

Question 12

to the other side of day

Answer 12

-

Question 13

performing entrechats

Answer 13

• form of entertainment (ballet term)

Question 14

and slight-of-foot tricks (3)

Answer 14

• deceiving
• theatricality
• devised

Question 15

and other high theatrics

Answer 15

-

Question 16

and all without mistaking (3)

Answer 16

• they may deceive the audience
• but not themselves
• attempt to represent Truth and Beauty

Question 17

any thing

Answer 17

-

Question 18

for what it may not be (2)

Answer 18

• it is their ‘norm’

- they are aware of their tricks

Question 19

For he’s the super realist (2)

Answer 19

• unfathomable to the audience

- accepting of their situation and prepared to deal with it accordingly (realists for their jobs)

Question 20

who must perforce perceive (2)

Answer 20

• driven by their own truths
• meticulous (not sloppy / precise)
• alliteration

Question 21

taut truth (1)

Answer 21

• conveying their own truths

- Alliteration

Question 22

before the taking of each stance or step (2)

Answer 22

• though

- carefulness

Question 23

in his supposed advance (4)

Answer 23

• intended
• unsure about achieving it
• judicious (wise)
• memorable

Question 24

toward that still higher perch (2)

Answer 24

• constantly striving for more (possibly their truth)

- literal higher perch above the audience

Question 25

where Beauty stands and waits (1)

Answer 25

• the goal they desire

Question 26

with gravity (2)

Answer 26

• the reminder or risk

- holding them down from their goals

Question 27

to start her death-defying leap (2)

Answer 27

• make or brake
• risk or death
• alliteration

Question 28

and he

Answer 28

-

Question 29

a little charleychaplin man (3)

Answer 29

• diminutive when compared to beauty
• tramp like
• clownish

Question 30

who may or may not catch (1)

Answer 30

• risk of failure

Question 31

her fair eternal form (2)

Answer 31

• about beauty

- striving to achieve their truths

Question 32

spread-eagled in the empty air

Answer 32

-

Question 33

of existence

Answer 33

-

Question 34

Overview

Answer 34

• Comparison between a poet and an acrobat
• only form of punctuation splits the poem into three parts
• the use of the irregular lines is to represent absurdity