Circling back to the first line of the previous stanza, the speaker now identifies a specific thing he wishes to be granted, a mind like that of “Michael Angelo.” “Michael Angelo” is an allusion to Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni. Known simply as Michelangelo, he was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the Renaissance. His body of work, especially the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican, reflects his genius and unparalleled artistic talent.
“Timon” is an allusion to the protagonist in Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens; “Lear” is an allusion to King Lear, the protagonist in Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of King Lear. Both characters are old men filled with rage; at the end of their lives, they refuse to passively accept their circumstances.
"Consuming its rag and bone,..."See in text(An Acre of Grass)
“Rag and bone” is an allusion to old clothes and other items, often junk, collected by a “rag-and-bone man,” someone who went throughout a town buying used goods to resell. The allusion implies that the speaker now has little of value in his mind or imagination to inspire creativity in revealing truth found in personal experience or regarding human existence.
