This one’s a little hard to follow and may take a couple of listens before it begins to sink in. My commentary follows the poem and may make it easier, or harder, to understand. You tell me, dear listener.

The poem makes a case for the poet as an exemplary lover, indeed a philosopher of love, one who understands both the essence of love and the best means of publicizing that love–or not. (The poet often argues that his love is elite and would only be degraded if the riff-raff learned of it.) As you’ll hear, the poet speaks directly to the reader, and in some respects turns the reader into a version of himself, almost the way a master would do to an apprentice. By the way, there are nine Worthies, those exemplary men whom the poet boasts he has outdone.

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