Exact same instincts as mine. It took the moment when the darkness of the goldmine dims and a man’s face appears for me to understand what was happening. I love this one because AGAIN 1822! The point of view of a lump of gold in the ground! The mind that could think of the world this way!
And it drives me batty that this mind was lost to the world because of Clement Moore taking credit for Henry’s poem.
Perhaps it will make you feel any better:
I, no expert on poets, knew who Henry Livingston was before reading your posts; I did not know who Clement Moore was.