> Hello again Terri,
Many thanks for your comments and observations on this piece.
Best wishes, Mike
> Lähettäjä: alderoak <[log in to unmask]>
> Päiväys: 2004/02/02 ma PM 09:48:49 GMT+02:00
> Vastaanottaja: [log in to unmask]
> Aihe: Re: new sub: Claire Clairmont
>
> There is something pedantic about this piece - like a maiden aunt - that
> captures the questions it evokes in the reader's mind.
>
> You make it both easy and hard to believe that it is possible to be 'happy'
> without 'happiness'.
>
> It took me a while, but once I realised that, the last line made sense. I
> had felt uncomfortable with the 'She never tried to believe'. It felt
> unnecessary. One could say, 'she never believed'. But, as written, it holds
> onto the sense of effort - the trying to believe that, despite chronic
> unhappiness, life is worth living.
>
> Well done
>
> Terri )O(
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The Pennine Poetry Works [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
> Of Mike Horwood
> Sent: 02 February 2004 09:55
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: new sub: Claire Clairmont
>
>
> Claire Clairmont And Allegra
>
> It is not true to say that her soul was withered
> within her by the death of her five-year-old child,
> though she said herself she had never again smiled
> absolutely; without happiness she could still be happy.
>
> Far from familiar scenes she stepped on strange stairs
> to her room´s cold and lonely austerity.
> But she often remarked, those whom posterity
> had honoured with greatness were numbered among her friends,
>
> though her passage through life had been solitary.
> And when she died, in a country remote from her
> daughter´s grave, the shawl, her lover´s last gift to her
> sixty years earlier, was laid in the coffin.
>
> When violet evening clouds were edged with orange,
> reflected in still water, she watched the day´s slow wane.
> And though this scene could not remove her pain,
> she never tried to believe that her loss negated its beauty.
>
>
>
>
> Mike
>
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