Lost in Translation
How does James Merrill use imagery in Lost in Translation?
![](https://d22o6al7s0pvzr.cloudfront.net/images/bookrags/qa/avatars/School/Stack_of_Books.png)
Asked by
bookragstutor
Last updated by
Cat
Merrill notes the power of art when the speaker's reading of Palme triggers a childhood memory. He invests the puzzle with a similar power when the pieces appear to arrange themselves as Mademoiselle and the boy withdraw into the background. The pieces align themselves with earth or sky and become naïve cosmogonists / Whose views clash or nomad inlanders who Begin to cluster . . . /. . . on the straggler . . . / To form a more sophisticated unit. The figures in the picture come alive and gaze at each other across clouds.