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Commentary on "The Ballad of 'Breaker' Coughlan" and "Dan Juan"

Despite his chronic untruthfulness, it cannot be denied that Beppo Paretzky's epic, "Childe Danny's Pilgrimage" has had a significant influence on later B.S. writings. These two poems of my own certainly betray this influence, although there is a definite desire also to introduce a spiritual or moral content - to underline the unquestionable truth that evil intentions lead to evil consequences. Having said this, there is also a profound insistence on the beauty of redemption through love: in "The Ballad" this is the love of Mary, and in "Dan Juan" it is the love of Muriel the sheep. Unfortunately, the love of Mary is insufficient to erase the execrable crimes of which Guy is guilty, but nonetheless, there is at least one stanza where this wretch is behaving in a decent, rather than purely selfish, way. In the case of "Dan Juan", the love of Muriel is the one thing that turns Danny from a filthy, perverted wastrel into a sensitive human being, more able both to give and receive love, despite the material disadvantages which follow from this (CH).