So like a totally sane person I was rereading Ours Poetica for the 45th time, and I just liked to point something out

So in Ours Poetica, Tommy recites a part of Pristine to stand up against Wilbur; sort of to make a final point. But I was wondering, what exactly did he mean when reciting it?

This is the whole poem. I usually pay the most attention to the first two paragraphs, since those seem to be the most important.

This is the meaning of perfect

And this is the meaning of pristine

Now back to Ours Poetica. Clearly, "And I am a maker of poems and you a maker of music" is meant to represent Tommy, the poet, and Wilbur, the musician. Tommy does not say "And you were cured...It was the cure" but I still think it's important to keep it in mind.

When he says "you tell me the word pristine was perfect" it's referencing the most important part of the poem. But, what does the poem mean?

To figure out what that means, one must compare and contrast pristine and perfect. Now, to be perfect can also mean to be pristine, but to be pristine does not always mean to be perfect. To be pristine, you are only going surface level. Clean, unspoiled. You cannot see anything wrong with it, so therefore it must mean it's perfect, right? Wrong. Just because something is pristine, does not mean it is perfect.

In the poem pristine, the Poet was told by the Musician that the doctor declared their ears to be pristine, and that that was the cure. The Musician believes that as long as it looks fine, it is fine. The Poet seems to believe that, but then they go to the hospital.

So basically, just because something is pristine, that it looks perfect on the surface, doesn't mean that it's perfect underneath; something is wrong.

So when Tommy says that Wilbur told him the word pristine meant perfect, he's basically saying that just because Wilbur sees him and his life as perfect because it is pristine, doesn't mean it is perfect, and that Wilbur is invalidating him.

I hope that makes sense, but it probably doesn't because I'm a bored idiot and I'm most likely wrong lol.