The plagiarised poetry

but the question is, why did he plagiarize? why didn't he just not say anything, and not put his entire operation at risk? i guess he just took a calculated risk, not realizing his student's extreme attention to detail.

plus, wilson was just a student at that point, not a c.i.a. operative, so i guess it didn't seem like that big of a deal for the professor, who was really just trying to get a piece, so to speak.

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Also true

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LOL! Yeah, that would be the most obvious reason.

When darkness overcomes the heart, Lil' Slugger appears...

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[deleted]

Because it was a metaphor for Edward's naivety/innocence (first stanza) and how that innocence would eventually be corrupted

A bud has burst on the upper bough
(The linnet sang in my heart today);
I know where the pale green grasses show
By a tiny runnel, off the way,
And the earth is wet.
(A cuckoo said in my brain: “Not yet.”)

Happy-go-lucky, world is beautiful, speaker revels in innocence, cuckoos feed on insects and act upon primal impulses but the "cuckoo" of the speaker's brain decides it's not yet time to feed, not yet time to bite

The speaker is innocent student (Matt Damon) who is not yet ready to acknowledge the people in his world are immoral people, not yet ready to accept the reality that the people and govournment he admires are not what they seem to be, not yet ready to ponder the corrupt currents of the world

The first stanza embodies the first stage of Edward's young manhood

Alternately, the first stanza symbolizes Michael Gambon (the cuckoo) playfully toying with his prey (Matt Damon), deciding it is not yet the time to eat Edward up (eat him up by recruiting him to be a spy, thus setting Edward down the path of demoralization); the first stanza is also the first stage of their student/teacher relationship

The second and third stanzas foreshadow the decline of Edward's character and life

I nabbed the fly in a briar rose
(The linnet to-day in my heart did sing);
Last night, my head tucked under my wing,
I dreamed of a green moon-moth that glows
Thro’ ferns of June.
(A cuckoo said in my brain: “So soon?”)

The speaker nabbed the "fly" and dreams of nabbing a more treasurable rarer richer prey, but also laments the dream - so soon I've lost my innocence, so soon I hunger for more, so soon I hunger for something grander and more seductive and elusive, dreaming of things I'm not yet ready for

The "fly" is Angelina Jolie because she was just a roll in the hay, and the "fly" was his low-level spying of Michael Gambon (he was wrong about what he found because he was new at spying)

The "green moon-moth that glows" is Tammy Blanchard because she's pure and true and rare and unattainable, and the "green moon-moth that glows" is his desire to be Top Dog Spy, something Edward never achieves because even though he's specially sought out and placed in top intelligence positions, he's never respected (except by the Russians, who refer to him as 'mother'), he's constantly undermined, and he's constantly accused of incompetency

The second stanza embodies his young manhood to manhood

Alternately, the second stanza symbolizes the second stage in the relationship between the Professor and Edward - Michael Gambon takes Edward - the coarse (and embarrassed) fly, a fly just like any fly, who has a lot to learn - under his wing, dreaming of transforming his coarse fly into a "green moon-moth that glows", a Top Dog Spy, and the Professor laments that it's too soon to corrupt Edward so fast but knows it must be done

Good-bye, for the pretty leaves are down
(The linnet sang in my heart today);
The last gold bit of upland’s mown,
And most of summer has blown away
Thro’ the garden gate.
(A cuckoo said in my brain: “Too late.”)

The speaker acknowledges that nothing can bring back the splendour in the grass, the glory in the flower. The gold is gone, the best days of the speaker's life are gone, Edward knows he's lost all that is precious to him, he knows he's lost his morals/values/ethics, he's in his third stage of life, middle age, he's entered it without any treasure, without any morals values ethics, and with the best years of his life wasted

Alternately, the final stanza symbolises the last stage of the relationship between the Professor and Edward - the golden glow of both the Professor and Edward are gone, the Professor is far past his prime, he has fallen down, he is blown away, and he is blown away too late - he warns Edward about the corruption of the profession, but the warning is too late (Edward was locked into the profession long before he met Gambon), and the Professor is killed "too late" because he had been subtlety planting warning seeds in Edward from the moment they met (yet the warning were futile), the implication being that Gambon should have been killed long before because his "dedication" had been wavering for too long

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