SOURCE: Nakell, Martin. “The Last Image.” New Orleans Review 15, no. 3 (fall 1988): 49-59.

In the following essay, Nakell uses Bachelard's psychoanalytic criticism to interpret the image and its origins, and investigates his concept of reverie.

Well they'd made up their minds to be everywhere           because why not. Everywhere was theirs because they thought so. They with two leaves they whom the birds despise. In the middle of stones they made up their minds. They started to cut. 

Well they cut everything because why not. Everything was theirs because they thought so. It fell into its shadows and they took both away. Some to have some for burning. 

Well in the morning they cut the last one. Like the others the last one fell into its shadow. It fell into its shadow on the water. They took it away its shadow stayed on the water. 

—The Lice, W. S. Merwin...