One of the great thing about a poem such as this is that different people can take so many different things from it. And it doesn't really matter whether our interpretation is right our not, as long as it means something to us. For what its worth, my interpretation of the deep ravine line is that Kavanagh and Hilda never had a full blown affair, but he experienced enough of her to realise how fantastic such an affair might have been. They were on the edge of great passion, without ever actually falling in to it. BTW, it does seem clear that the woman in question was not a prostitute. See my posting of Nov 29th on the previous thread. Rgds, Stephen