Benedetta+49-50

Benedetta 49-50 49 Hackles- One of the long, slender feathers on the neck or saddle of certain birds, as the domestic rooster, much used in making artificial flies for anglers. Norma comments on the poet Abraham Stern having ‘been here donkey’s years’ (thus having been ‘here’ a very long time)
 * Hackles rising- ** getting angry, irritated or on the defense.
 * Donkey’s years ** - // A very long time. //The saying ‘// donkey's years’ // was aided by the belief that donkeys live a long time.

50 Concentric- Having a common center, as circles or spheres. Lope- To move or run with bounding steps, as a quadruped, or with a long, easy stride, as a person. Costello refers to ‘The Panther’ as a concentric lope: a spiral or cycle, no definite end or final answer.
 * Blasphemy ** - Impious words or actions concerning God or sacred things.
 * Inversion- ** An act or instance of inverting (to reverse in position, order, direction, or relationship).
 * Niceties- ** A delicate or fine point.
 * Rilke- ** Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 – 1926) is considered one of the German language's greatest 20th-century poets. His works focus on the difficulty of unity with the indescribeable in an age of solitude, disbelief, and anxiety: themes that tend to put him as a transitional figure between the traditional and the modern poets. The poem mentioned by Costello, ‘The Panther’, is a poem by Rilke describing a panther who is being kept in a cage, in a zoo.
 * Ted Hughes- **Edward James Hughes  (1930 –1998) was an English poet and children's writer, known as Ted Hughes. The two poems referred to by Costello are ‘The Jaguar’ (a poem describing the animals in a zoo and their lifestyles. Then comparing them to the jaguar, which is an animal that lives differently to the others in the way that it views its life) and ‘Second Glance at a Jaguar’ (similar to ‘The Jaguar’, repeats several of the same ideas).
 * Concentric Lope- **
 * Stupefied- **Put into a state of little or no sensibility. Stunned, as with a narcotic, shocked, overwhelmed with amazement.
 * Narcotized- **Treated with a narcotic. Made dull and deadened the awareness of.