"Ships named for women move towards description. They enter narrative as I have entered books."
In this passage, Debbie is traveling on a boat and sees a city in the distance. The narrator comments that "ships named for women move towards description" as "I have entered books." Overall, this might represent the introduction of the female narrative into literature, which is something Robertson is attempting to do with her retelling of the epic.
"With that suave domesticity, Virgil strolls among the deep shelves of the paternal library."
In this poem, Robertson introduces the setting of the library. She metaphorically describes how classical authors such as "Virgil," stroll through the "paternal library." With this phrase, she is referring to the dominance of men in the literary canon, where male narratives are predominant. With her own epic, about Debbie, Robertson attempts to introduce a female voice into the epic genre.
"Between antiquity and us floats love in the library."
Here, the narrator introduces the idea of romance into the library, also alluding to the "antiquity" of classical texts in the library. She personifies love as something that floats between them, perhaps suggesting that a library is a good place for love to flourish.
