I went back to this poem to explain John's blog counter to a friend who watched aSiB this weekend. This line jumped out at me this time:
"Only those things the heart believes are true."
I've said before that John's head knows that Sherlock is dead, but his heart believes differently.
I'm not trying to say that the explanation will be simplistic or sentimentalized, just saying that I love the way that Moffett/Gatiss make the effort to bring all Sherlockiana into their show.
221B
Here dwell together still two men of note
Who never lived and so can never die:
How very near they seem, yet how remote
That age before the world went all awry.
But still the game's afoot for those with ears
Attuned to catch the distant view-halloo:
England is England yet, for all our fears—
Only those things the heart believes are true.
A yellow fog swirls past the window-pane
As night descends upon this fabled street:
A lonely hansom splashes through the rain,
The ghostly gas lamps fail at twenty feet.
Here, though the world explode, these two survive,
And it is always eighteen ninety-five.
By Vincent Starrett
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It was worth a wound–it was worth many wounds–to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask. The clear, hard eyes were dimmed for a moment, and the firm lips were shaking. For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. All my years of humble but single-minded service culminated in that moment of revelation.
