“The fair music that all creatures made”: from Milton’s poem “To a Solemn Music,” “solemn” meaning “orchestral” music.
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then doubling once more: This is all figurative language. I am thinking of myself as the fox. The dogs have run themselves to death on my trail, and I am turning back, “doubling,” to have a look at them and to rejoice over their defeat.
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pine marten: The marten is so rare in this neighborhood that I am inclined to think the creature was the large weasel.
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the heavy bar across their foreheads: a very unusual way of yoking oxen in the United States. The only team I ever saw here so yoked.
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San Francisco: alluding to the earthquake and fire which nearly wiped out the city in 1906.