Never a believer in the "natural" or "
cousinly" nature of the Anglo-American relationship, Crawford was wary of American attacks on the idea of the legitimacy of the British Empire.
We observe him arranging for the slaughter of Macduff's family and smoothly, without the slightest hint of agitation or discomfort, feigning
cousinly affection for the defenseless mother and child who will die shortly after he leaves them with kisses and an embrace.
After having been brought by a "Robin," the Aunt's "lily" of a daughter and the
cousinly " little colony all hens" of "wrens" go walking by the slightly ominous "steep turn of Sweetwater." At this point the speaker enjoins his Aunt to "let them alone" while he goes "fishing in the dark of my mind." Collectively transfiguring the memory of these young girls into an elusive prey, a catch to be baited and brought aloft, he transforms the last two stanzas of the poem into a sentence ending with a hook-shaped question mark that nonetheless fails to capture or contain a psychically shattering primal scene.
He notes in the Preface that "there are significant degrees of
cousinly relationship between the ways in which science and theology conduct their truth-seeking enquiries into the nature of reality" (p.
Nasira's matrimonial prospects, handpicked by her traditional but loving father (Laith Nakli), begin with a disaster, as a
cousinly candidate arriving from Syria turns out to possess few table manners and fewer teeth.
Now, with often third and fourth-generations involved, and
cousinly shareholders running in to the dozens, keeping everyone happy, and profitable, is all but impossible.
