Rivières enflammées ! Désirs dévastateurs ! Torrents d’amour fou ! Ne pouvez-vous pas comme l’eau apaiser les brûlures et la soif ? Ne portez-vous aucune consolation ? Car voici que vient la menace… CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
A charming poem about the love of a child. To admire her blue eyes is the poet’s bliss, to take her hands is the desire of his heart, and, as he repeats three times, her kiss will heal his pains. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
I present today my third and last selection from The River Rhymer. Near a river, at hay time in the sunny summer, a young girl captivates the poet, who remains at her feet. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Le poète français Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle (1818–1894) est considéré comme un chef de file du mouvement parnassien en poésie ; en réaction au lyrisme subjectif et sentimental du romantisme, celui-ci prônait un art impersonnel et la recherche de la beauté formelle, des poèmes ciselés comme des sculptures, préfigurant le slogan de « l’art pour l’art ». CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
I present now the last of the 8 “Sonnets of a Little Girl.” This 8th one is not about childhood, there is no little girl in it; it rather tells about disappointment and death. A modified version of it, with the title “Epilogue,” appeared in The Savoy, No. 7, November 1896, page 87. With the title “A Last Word,” it was included as the last poem in verse in Dowson’s final collection Decorations: in Verse and Prose, published in December 1899, two months before his death. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Les pélerins du paradis d’amour doivent ouvrir sept portes, et pour chacune briser le sceau qui la maintient fermée. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Another poem from The River Rhymer, about a loved girl seen rowing in a boat. The poet longs to join her in her canoe, but it is too small for two persons. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Estelle, Estelle, se dandinant comme un canard, joyeuse à ma rencontre. Estelle, Estelle, sautillant les pieds joints et chantant « Cho — cla, cho — cla, cho — cla ! » CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
The poet wants to creep into a cavern, fall asleep and die; he feels unworthy of the child’s love, and asks for her forgiveness. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
The poems from Boudoir Ballads that we presented have shown the persistent love of Ashby-Sterry for young girls. But the poet had another passion: rivers, boats and rowing. In 1913 he published The River Rhymer, a collection of verse on this topic.
Some of his poems combine both passions, for instance a few ones in Boudoir Ballads told about a young girl loved on a river. I have thus selected three love poems from The River Rhymer, here is my first one: CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
