It's very true, Peter T. I was avoiding that observation because I was talking too much as an interloper on the list. The Queen of Hearts line was like a large grain of sand I had to choke down to enjoy the rest of an otherwise fine meal. I was so pleased when someone put some possible meaning into it, up above, allowing it to go down more easily. I frequently wondered how a singer should approach that line: Should they belt it out with triumphant grandiosity, and then, should the audience respond with thunderous applause at the cartoon queen's industry?

For what it's worth, I had done my own phylophising (God, I love that word--someone should send it in to Miriam-Webster), to make it palatable: I thought that perhaps the line referenced the ongoing process of successful romantic liasons occurring all around the artist, while he was spinning his wheels, or perhaps that the assembly line was churning out all sorts of more appropriate choices for him, of which he failed to avail himself.

I admitted at the outset that I have no education in poetry, and so I have wondered what the cognoscenti say about the technique of which you complain. It can be an annoyance to be sure. Believe it or not, while I have found the analyzing and phylophising of this particular song rewarding in that I can now "own" the song in my mind (too bad I can't sing!), it's a process to which I usually won't dedicate much energy. I'm getting some extra benefits here by stealing some (maybe too many)insights into van morrison's lyrics (take me back to when I lived in Grace; I will never grow so old again); and he loves the technique.

Dan (Who once loved a precious dark haired girl from Monaghan, though I've never been there.)