Category: Poetry

Power in Silence, by Michael Field

Christian Schloe
Christian Schloe

I present today my last selection from Underneath the Bough, a love poem in “The Third Book of Songs” in that collection. It must be understood within the context of the lesbian relation between the two authors, Katharine Bradley and Edith Cooper. The poet loves a silent girl, but “her royal, jewelled speechlessness” does not mean that she does not reciprocate: “It were not right / To reckon her the poorer lover; / She does not love me less.” The two are like birds, looking for intimacy: “what is more dear / Than a cherry-bough, bees feeding near / In the soft, proffered blooms?” The young girl “is a dove” who must liberate herself from barriers and give herself fully to the power of love: “My close-housed bird should take her flight / To magnify our love.” CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

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Chansons en Espagne d’Émile Blémont

Odysseas Oikonomou
Odysseas Oikonomou – provient de poramoralarte-exposito.blogspot.com

Émile Blémont publia en 1904 Beautés étrangères, un recueil en deux parties. La première, intitulée Poèmes d’outre-mer et d’outre-monts, divisée en cinq sections, est constituée de poèmes ; la deuxième, intitulée Notes sur quelques Poètes anglais ou américains du XIXe siècle, est une série d’essais sur plusieurs poètes de langue anglaise. En frontispice, l’auteur écrit : CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

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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…

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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…

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