Just the other week, I was relating the fact that (according to the OED) a historical synonym for "windhover," and occasional term of opprobrium, was "windfucker."
. . . I don't think that would work as a children's book. :-P
The narrator doesn't technically say the plough is there, in the landscape under the bird, but the regions where a kestral was called a windhover were still heavily agricultural at the time. OTOH, we are clearly not supposed to assume the sunken fire mentioned immediately afterward is in the same place, so a argument can be made that the ploughman isn't either -- one that possibly has the better of it.
I still think the shift in perception, from the stooping falcon to the plough in the field below it, would make a good illustration. (But so could a shift entirely into the narrator's imagination, possibly sitting in a pub, late at night, looking at the coals.)
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Date: 20 May 2014 04:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 20 May 2014 06:04 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 20 May 2014 04:49 pm (UTC). . . I don't think that would work as a children's book. :-P
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Date: 20 May 2014 06:03 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 22 May 2014 06:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 22 May 2014 12:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 22 May 2014 03:15 am (UTC)---L.
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Date: 23 May 2014 02:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 23 May 2014 04:20 am (UTC)---L.
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Date: 23 May 2014 05:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 23 May 2014 02:21 pm (UTC)I still think the shift in perception, from the stooping falcon to the plough in the field below it, would make a good illustration. (But so could a shift entirely into the narrator's imagination, possibly sitting in a pub, late at night, looking at the coals.)
---L.