<span>"Counting Small-Boned Bodies" is a short poem of ten lines and, as its title suggests, plays upon official body counts of dead Vietnamese soldiers. The poem's first line, "Let's count the bodies over again," is followed by three tercets, each of which begins with the same line: "If we could only make the bodies smaller." That condition granted, Bly postulates three successive images: a plain of skulls in the moonlight, the bodies "in front of us on a desk," and a body fit into a finger ring which would be, in the poem's last words, "a keepsake forever." One notes in this that Bly uses imagery not unlike that of the pre-Vietnam poems, especially in the image of the moonlit plain.</span>
He is right it is complex
We judge the quality of music works and performances by averting our attention to the sounds instruments make. The dramatic facial expressions actors/actresses portray on their face. The technique musicians use while playing their instrument. The way the costumes are designed in a performance. If the guest speaker in a performance stuttered or forgot a pat of their speech. If a composer’s sheet music dropped in the middle of composing a recital/performance/play. To sum it up, we pay attention to the little details in the things we see/witness, which makes us quick to judge.
Hope that helps!
