WYatt #2: An approximate toxology of Pine

Wyatt may have written two or three of my favourite lyrics, but reading through his complete poems is not pleasant.


The pine simple.

This is a pleasant state of prolonged expectation in which the individual anticipates the Looked For Event (hereafter LFA) in the certainty that it will happen. Should the LFE eventuate, the pleasure thereof will be heightened by the spice of anticipation. Should the LFE not eventuate, the individual slides, inexorably into the next stage:

The Pine Extended:

The individual is now properly referred to as “The sufferer”. Doubt has eroded certainty and replaced it with hope, although it is a hope which is in itself characterized by certainty. The sufferer still believes in the LFE. Although this stage can continue for a long time, it is often characterized by the sufferer’s increasingly futile and somewhat strident attempts to bring about the LFE. If the LFE still refuses to eventuate, then there are two possible courses of progression: The sane sufferer throws his or her hands in the air and discovers something better to do with his or her time time. They may reflect with some bemusement upon the experience, the predicament they found themselves in, and some of the things they wish they hadn’t said or done…but there is no real lasting harm. On the other hand, the less sane sufferer slides towards stage three:

Terminal pine or the interstitial agony of non being.

This is a definable illness. By this stage certainty and hope are replaced by a paradoxical belief that the LFE will not happen which simultaneously exists with an increasingly profound desire that it will. The sufferer is strident and manic, and prone to violent shifts between the two mutually exclusive extremes. In the interstitial space created by this paradox the sufferer is trapped. Without professional help, unless of course the LFE happens, the suffer is on the slippery slide to

Post pine terminal sadness:
The sufferer at this stage has lost perspective, can appear irrational and is usually becoming prey to a terrible loss of self respect. Actions and words will cause great embarrassment to all concerned when viewed in the cold light of retrospective objectivity…or by any third party. This can either turn inwards to self loathing (which may be mild or require professional assistance) or towards resentment towards the other. While the modern piner irrationally accepts this, suffering is complicated by his or her awareness that such an attitude is totally unfair to the other person, accentuating the loss of self respect and encouraging a sense of self loathing. …… leading to

Tudor Pine;

The total abyss of pine. Diseased, irrational, pained and hurting. SOme fo Wyatt's poems are so confused that they announce that because he loves the lady, the lady is obliged to respond positively. Resentment when she avoids this weird illogic overcomes common sense and the sufferer ends up indentifying his or her self as the victim, assumes he or she has been deliberately victimised and requires both sympathy from everyone else and vengeance on the unsuspecting other. At which point I want to shake Wyatt and say: "She doesn't like you. Leave her alone".
WHich requires thinking about that /I/ yet again.