A couple of poems today from Adelaide Crapsey (1878 - 1914) and Laurence Alma-Tadema (1864–1940). Laurence was the daughter of the artist Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Adelaide was the inventor of the cinquain.
If No One Ever Marries Me
by Laurence Alma-Tadema
published in 'Realms of Unknown Kings', 1897
If no-one ever marries me--
And I don't see why they should,
For nurse says I am not pretty
And I'm seldom very good--
If no one ever marries me
I shan't mind very much;
I shall buy a squirrel in a cage,
And a little rabbit-hutch;
I shall have a cottage near a wood,
And a pony all my own,
And a little lamb, quite clean and tame,
That I can take to town;
And when I'm getting really old,
At twenty-eight or nine--
I shall buy a little orphan girl
And bring her up as mine.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An excerpt from
To The Dead in the Graveyard Underneath My Window
by Adelaide Crapsey
Written in A Moment of Exasperation
How can you lie so still? All day I watch
And never a blade of all the green sod moves
To show where restlessly you toss and turn,
And fling a desperate arm or draw up knees
Stiffened and aching from their long disuse;
I watch all night and not one ghost comes forth
To take its freedom of the midnight hour.
Oh, have you no rebellion in your bones?
You can read the rest here.
MsMac is hosting the Poetry Round-up at Check It Out.
6 comments:
I love the imagery in Adelaide Crapsey's poem; thank you for introducing her to me - and for linking to the rest of the poem.
The aching really resonates with me. Makes me weep. Mark of a great poet. :)
I want to read A Study in English Metrics now. I have no natural sense of meter, so I have much to study. There is a wicked sense of humor in these poems that really thrives in the snap of the language she builds.
Thank you so very much.
Hi, Tabatha--
I've always pitied Adelaide for having to live with that name, but I see now I needn't have worried about her too much.
We need to get together so you can teach me all the tricks you've learned about blogger layout. Your blog is looking wonderful, and I like the idea of "keeping" Poetry Friday!
Thank you, all, for stopping by and visiting. Heidi, I've felt sorry for Adelaide, too. Thanks for the kind words about the layout. I'm not sure I know any tricks, but let's get together anyway!
Huh. The inventor of the cinquain. I guess if I had thought about it harder, I would have realized that it needed to be invented, but it had always just seemed to exist. Thanks for the little shake-up and for two new poets to love.
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