Thomas, Not Vanda

25 February 2026

https://poems.culturing.net/2026/02/thomas-not-vanda/

You are not Vanda. You are Thomas.
Now it all clicks into place.
If the play is a theophany of Venus,
it signifies sexual awakening, but you
are the one awakening, not the awakener.
It is more Freud than Adler, more sex than power
(but really I say Jung is the better guide).
You are not springing a trap, you are quite simply
noting your own awakening. I could not explain
why your Vanda appears repressed (which makes no sense)
unless you intend to invoke the play as a whole
as a symbol of awakening. It seems to me obvious now.
You are in your own good hands, but I
have had a part to play.

--

But does that make me Vanda?! It is hard
to keep straight, maybe that is the point.
Of course I have been awakening too, so just like in the play
we have both been both Thomas and Vanda. But who
is at fault? I cannot accept the condemnation of Venus
because I do not deserve it (and neither does she). Do you
deserve it? Or might it be wholly undeserved?