Mallarme Free Write - Matt T

The passage of Mallarme's poem on pages 176 and 177 definitely caught my eye. On these two pages, there are differently sized phrases which immediately draw the eye to them. Reading just the capitalized phrases, it reads

"IT WAS        THE NUMBER       MIGHT HAVE EXISTED       MIGHT HAVE BEGUN AND ENDED       MIGHT HAVE BEEN RECKONED         MIGHT HAVE ENLIGHTENED      IT WOULD BE         CHANCE"

This alone I feel goes along with the chasm and abyss idea of the poem. The number, in my opinion, doesn't really matter, it was just the object of the passage. It continues to say what would have been and could have been. I just imagine a number of stars falling into a dark abyss, like a black hole. The stars just did not stand a chance. It is as if the life and potential of the stars was snuffed out. It would be a chance for them to escape but probably improbable. Reading this just feels like that slow motion sequence in a movie, like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, where Dumbledore is falling slowly from the Astronomy Tower. You can just imagine the motion of a living thing that is dead, falling even though it's fate has been sealed and there is not way of escape.

I feel that just page 176 fully embodies this idea, where the immediate words you can read are "IT WAS  IT WOULD BE"  This definitely gives the idea of being engulfed in a black abyss, and never to be again. I think this conveys that powerful feeling of helplessness.