Oh, it's "Mariana" that has that "aweary, aweary, I would that I were dead," as she
waits in her rather decomposing house and landscape and 'dreary' life for he
who "cometh not."
All day within the dreamy house,
The doors upon their hinges creak'd;
The blue fly sung in the pane; the mouse
Behind the mouldering wainscot shriek'd,
Or from the crevice peered about.
Old faces glimmer'd thro' the doors,
Old footsteps trod the upper floors,
Old voices called her from without.
She only said, 'My life is dreary,
He cometh not,' she said;
She said, 'I am aweary, aweary,
I would that I were dead!'
And "Maud"'s got the guy in the garden saying
Come into the garden, Maud,
For the black bat, Night, has flown,
Come into the garden, Maud,
I am here at the gate alone;
though she's in the house dancing the night away so he begins making his
argument to each of the flowers,
I said to the lily, 'There is but one
With whom she has heart to be gay.
When will the dancers leave her alone?
She is weary of dance and play.'
and the flowers then talk back,
The red rose cries, 'She is near, she is near;'
And the white rose weeps, 'She is late;'
The larkspur listens, 'I hear, I hear;'
And the lily whispers, 'I wait.'
Mariana is going to die if he doesn't show up, and Maud is going to die if she
does (or so the speaker imagines)
To faint in the light of the sun she loves,
To faint in his light, and to die.
But, no, not much suckling in either, about which I intend to say nothing further
except to say that when I googled the word, this is the first thing that came up,
Googlism for: suckling
suckling is an exemplary lyric poet
Best,
Rebecca
---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2005 14:46:41 +1100
>From: Alison Croggon <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: The suckability of contemporary American poetry
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>On 4/1/05 2:05 PM, "Stephen Vincent" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> I won't argue with you, nor would I anyway, other than those Victorian etc.
>> poems kind of done "suckle" to death.
>
>Hi Stephen
>
>You can tell I'm avoiding writing today...
>
>Yes, agreed on the Victoriana, though I like Rossetti very much. I remember
>thinking Tennyson's poem (I can't remember the details and am not going to
>look it up) about Come into the garden Maude was hilarious, though. Was it
>Maude who was a-weary, a-weary, I would that I were dead? Not much
suckling
>there, but it's great fun to say out loud, and can be a very useful tool for
>annoying people when you're 12.
>
>Perhaps rather alarmingly, one of my first associations when I think of the
>word "suckle" is Lady MacBeth. I don't even think she says it, just that
>image of dashing the sucking babe from the breast. Hopefully not a
>reflection of my parenting style.
>
>Best
>
>A
>
>
>Alison Croggon
>
>Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
>Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
>Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
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