temporary misreading

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

from Lisa Zeidner's review of James Salter's Last Night, in the NYT
Book Review, 6/12/05, p. 13:

-----
Here the lonely married woman in "My Lord You" swims alone...  On
this excursion she first encounters the forlorn, hungry dog of an
unstable poet she met at a party.
-----

first time through, i read this as saying she encountered the poet,
who was, metaphorically, a forlorn, hungry dog.  but on reflection,
that can't be right; she's already met the poet, so this can't be her
first encounter with him.  and all is immediately clarified:

-----
Literally hounding her, the dog functions as a metaphor of her own
frayed marriage, yet the animal is still very much a vibrant, living
thing...
-----

i suspect i've been thinking too long about the "my idiot of a
brother" construction and its relatives.  my parser is primed for the
exotic.

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)