Art and Sterility

The collection contrasts the vitality of art (e.g., Michelangelo, Shakespeare, the Grail legend) with the sterility of contemporary society, where culture is reduced to trivial chatter ('Talking of Michelangelo') or mechanical reproduction.

The reference to music that 'body forth our vacuity' and the woman's dismissal of the man's poetic fancies highlight art's inability to convey genuine emotion, pointing to a sterile aestheticism.

The speaker's calculated staging of the scene and the 'bored but courteous moon' highlight the emptiness and artificiality of artistic conventions.