Penelope, by Francis Thompson

John Singer Sargent - The Honourable Victoria Stanley
John Singer Sargent – The Honourable Victoria Stanley

Volume 2 of The works of Francis Thompson, Poems contains a section titled A Narrow Vessel, starting with the following description:

Being a little dramatic sequence on the aspect of primitive girl-nature towards a love beyond its capacities

It consists mostly of poems about unhappy love affairs with girls; they are often bitter and reproachful, sometimes telling of “sin.” CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

La Reine de Mai, par Jean Aicard

S.J. Thompson - The May Queen and her court
S.J. Thompson – The May Queen and her court, New Westminster, BC, Canada (c.1887) – New Westminster Public Library, Heritage Database, accession number 2728

Des traditions populaires ont longtemps été associées au 1er mai, avant qu’il ne soit devenu le symbole du mouvement ouvrier ; certaines d’entre elles sont héritées de fêtes religieuses antérieures au christianisme, comme celle de Beltaine chez le Celtes, célébrant le renouveau et l’amour. Ainsi des jeunes (ou petites) filles s’habillent en blanc et on élit parmi elles la « Reine de Mai ». Elles peuvent aussi danser autour d’un poteau, « L’Arbre de Mai ». CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Sonnets of a Little Girl, IV, by Ernest Dowson

Léopold Morice - Fillette à la coquille
Léopold Morice – Fillette à la coquille, Pont Alexandre III, Paris, France – from Wikimedia Commons

Of the 8 Sonnets of a Little Girl, only two were published in Dowson’s lifetime: a modified version of the 8th, and this one, the 4th, in its original version. It appeared with the title “Sonnet to a little Girl” in London Society, volume 50, November 1886, over the initials E.C.D. Notice that while the title is dedicated to “a little girl,” in the first sentence of the poem he writes about the child “his” and “him.” CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…