In 1928 appeared Nathalia Crane’s fourth collection of poetry, Venus Invisible and Other Poems. Again, the title comes from one of the poems, but in this case not a noteworthy one. In my opinion, the most important work in the book is the long poem “Tadmor,” a strange oriental love tale with dreams and premonitions, ending in mutual worship; it is organised like an opera, alternating story, dialogues and chorus songs. In this book, the 15-year-old author shows her fully adult sophistication, which she had displayed growingly in her previous collections of verses.

I have chosen the first poem and the corresponding illustration shown at the beginning of the book. Here Nathalia Crane tells us with humour that two flowers spared us a catastrophe by refusing the marriage proposals of a tiger and a viper, which would have led to a monstrous offspring.

THE PROPOSALS
by Nathalia Crane

SAID the tiger to the lily,
Said the viper to the rose:
Let us marry so our children
May attain the double pose.

With a feline half a flower—
With the attar in the asp,
We could institute a slaughter
That would make a planet gasp.

But the lily told the tiger
‘Twas an empty enterprise
To raise the little half-breeds
With lanterns in their eyes.

And the rosebud gave her answer
The while she merely smiled:
A babe two-fourths a viper
Would drive a mother wild.

The world is growing gentle,
But few know what she owes
To the understanding lily
And the judgment of the rose.

Source of the poem and illustration: Nathalia Crane, Venus Invisible and Other Poems. Illustrated by Ruth Jonas. Coward-McCann, New York (1928).

Previously published on Agapeta, 2018/03/05.