FEEDBACK ON "DO CHASE THE EBBING NEPTUNE." THIS POEM IS COLLECTED IN THE BOOK  "SECOND JOURNEY."  ALSO RECEIVED AN HONORABLE MENTION IN THE FIRST ANNUAL NEBRASKA POETRY SOCIETY OPEN POETRY CONTEST.

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Livingston gratefully received many inquiries about this poem, so he assembled some of the feedback to help readers attain their own answers. 

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B.Y.

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I read and felt a bit sad.  But it is beautiful.

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G.K. 

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I love poetry, and I’m so impressed with both of your verses, which summon such visuals with tag-along feelings. So appreciate you sharing these with me!

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M.H.H.

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Beautiful poem.

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I read it for myself and recorded it. Also, I shared it with my college mates. 

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Such a legacy you are leaving to your children and their children. It is better than gold.

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N.H. 

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So surprising and deeply felt. As always excellently done!

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F.D.

 

Very interesting and evocative.

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J.K.

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Thanks for sharing.

Moving, thought provoking, slightly disturbing.

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From Livingston 

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Everyone is entitled to their own interpretation. Just to share one point of view: the “feelings” in this poem may be encompassing in the title “Do chase the ebbing Neptune.” A phrase in one of the many ending speeches of Prospero in the play “The Tempest.” “The Tempest” is one of the last plays written by Shakespeare. It has been considered; Prospero is Shakespeare. And all these final speeches are Shakespeare bidding good-bye to his audience after such a colorful, dramatic life in writing so many plays that penetrate every human’s emotion: love, hate, betray, jealousy, vanity, longing, glory, success, failure, depress, desire, disguise, despise, despair, death…any schemes you can think of…Shakespeare wrote in old English, hard to understand, this poem is straightforward to try expressing one of his remaining regrets, wish and continue yearning…

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N.H.

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It’s great to hear this explanation, I have always been trying to crack Shakespeare, To understand the language and music of how he uses it. Wonderful to plunge in here and hear your words on him. Funny, I just noticed I used his phrase “excellently done” in my first response to you. Those are Viola’s words spoken in Twelfth Night!

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