Poets and Lovers vit depuis deux ans, fleur fragile au futur incertain, soumise aux menaces d’un environnement hostile. Elle peut mourir, mais elle renaîtra alors certainement. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Liberté chérie
Love in catacombs
“First of all, you must never speak of anything by its name—in that country. So, if you see a tree on a mountain, it will be better to say ‘Look at the green on the high’; for that’s how they talk—in that country. And whatever you do, you must find a false reason for doing it—in that country. If you rob a man, you must say it is to help and protect him: that’s the ethics—of that country. And everything of value has no value at all—in that country. You must be perfectly commonplace if you want to be a genius—in that country. And everything you like you must pretend not to like; and anything that is there you must pretend is not there—in that country. And you must always say that you are sacrificing yourself in the cause of religion, and morality, and humanity, and liberty, and progress, when you want to cheat your neighbour—in that country.”
“Good heavens!” cried Iliel, “are we going to England?”
— Aleister Crowley, Moonchild (1917), Chapter XX
Poets and Lovers has been living for two years, in an epoch where freedom of art is increasingly under attack. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Sonnets of a Little Girl, II, by Ernest Dowson
As the 7 other sonnets in this series, this one was probably written around 1885. Again it tells us that only a little girl can relieve the poet’s heart from bitterness and sorrow. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Adown the Lesbian vales, by Michael Field
My third selection from the collection Long Ago is a sapphic poem. Young girls make offerings to the poetess, who wonders what to give them in return. She will “sing of their soft cherishing” and “of marriage-loves;” the highest praises would crown them, as the rose “is not so good, so fresh as they,” “opening their glorious, candid maidenhood.” CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Fruit d’amour
Mordre une grenade mûre, sentir le jus rouge couler sur ses joues… amour ultime caché dans un doux écrin. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
The Little Rebel, by Joseph Ashby-Sterry
In 1886 Ashby-Sterry published a second collection of verses, The Lazy Minstrel. It included in a slightly modified form several poems from Boudoir Ballads. I have chosen in it an original poem about an unruly little girl who truly behaves like a savage tomboy, now “good as gold,” then “pert and bold,” “naughty but best of girls,” he loves her as she is. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Fleur-des-blés, par Émile Blémont
Voici un autre poème de Chansons des champs, la deuxième partie du recueil Les pommiers en fleur : idylles de France et de Normandie d’Émile Blémont. Le poète prie la chère alouette de chanter « la joyeuse et fraîche fillette », « la belle que mon cœur souhaite », « ses cheveux blonds », « ses lèvres », « ses yeux bleus ». CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Dowson’s grave
Ernest Christopher Dowson was born on August 2, 1867 in Lee (now part of Lewisham), in the Kent region of the UK. Throughout his life he suffered from poor health, and he died from tuberculosis and neglect on February 23, 1900, aged 32. He was buried in Ladywell Cemetary. Here is an old picture of his grave, scanned from The Letters of Ernest Dowson (Desmond Flower & Henry Maas, editors): CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
No other girl, by Michael Field
I present here my second selection from the collection Long Ago published in 1889 by Katharine Bradley and Edith Cooper under the pen name Michael Field. Addressed to a young man, the poem praises his future bride, a most lovely girl, there could not be a better choice. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
To Monica: After Nine Years, by Francis Thompson
Another poem of Francis Thompson published posthumously. Addressed to Monica Meynell, it alludes to an earlier poem dedicated to her, “The Poppy,” which was probably written in 1891 when the girl was 11 years old. Hence this one can be dated around 1900, written for a 20 years old Monica. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…