"On Love, On Grief"

"On Love, On Grief" is a poem written by Walter Savage Landor(1775-1864) that was recently reviewed by Robert Pinksy in an essay called "Why Walter Savage Landor's Classic Epigram is a Lesson in Economy." The poem consists of only two lines:

"On love, on grief, on every living thing,

Time sprinkles Lethe's water with his wing."

The review of this poem has about thirty times as many words. The author of the review goes in depth about each word contained in this epigram. The odd thing about this review is that the title makes on believe the reviewer will connect the short poem to economics, but I read nothing of that sort in the article. To understand this poem, I would have needed to read the article first. I would not have understood the allusion of Lethe's water or the important image of time having wings. The next paragraph delves into the physical feel and sound of the words of the poem as they are being said.

The author states at the beginning of article that this is for the revival of Slate's poem column, so I believe the intended audience is supposed to be people that love poems.  Although this review is only an interpretation of the poet's work.