Sameness and Difference in a Tragic Play

The play’s about a fight in which there are

Two persons close—but clashing through themselves.

Their hopes are parallel in fear and hate.

Their ways of mind make intersections which

Bring out the horror of the parallels.

Othello, Desdemona meet in love;

But then the world, themselves, are seen in ways

So other, so opposed, a murder comes to be.

Iago is the means of bringing out

The clash within the sameness of the love

Othello, Desdemona say they have—

Announce to father, Venice and themselves.

There’s smothering, because what’s close

Is also so remote. Othello saw

A certain this, but not a different that.

The that inflamed him. Iago saw

The obscure incompleteness of the love

For evil looks to show its unseen might

By finding vacancy in good. It strikes.