This poem is an adaptation of part three of Yeats’ poem “A Man Young and Old” that reshapes the original in a simple interface, perhaps to comment upon the piece. Upon comparison with the original Yeats poem, some of the most notable transformations are purely visual. For example, the first line appears prominently enlarged on the center of the window, and the rest of the poem is arranged as a kind of vibrating cloud that responds to the reader’s mouse movements. Depending on where the pointer is located in relation to the center of the window, the words appear upright or reversed on horizontal and vertical axes, as they vibrate under the reader’s control.
Some questions arise upon reading this text: What was Yung trying to say by designing this interface and behavior for the text? What do they contribute to the poem? What did she seek to emphasize by dividing the poem into stanzas?
I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I sense parallels between the story of the mermaid’s love for her lad and Yung’s love for Yeats’ poem.
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