Copyright © Louise Bostock 2007-2013. Please give credit where credit is due.

Sunday 15 March 2009

Terza di Quaresima : the third Sunday in Lent

As a teenager I was in love with John Keats. I was as much in love with him as he was with Fanny. As much in love with him as he was with Love itself. I blushed at his sexual imagery, I bathed in his sensual descriptions, I lay despondent with him in "embalmèd darkness", listening to the song of the nightingale. I memorized entire swathes of his sublime poetry just for fun (okay, for exams). I knew it would come in useful one day.

Like this, for instance :

O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been
Cool’d a long age in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
Dance, and Provencal song, and sunburnt mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South,
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple-stainèd mouth....


[John Keats Ode to a Nightingale]

Oh yes, I misspent my youth in this glorious young man's company.

And what do I get these days? Especially these days in Lent when I've sworn off alcohol just to prove a point?

No beaded bubbles winking at me. No sunburnt mirth. No taste of Flora. And definitely no purple-stainèd mouth.

No.

I get the instruction booklet for the juicer and a couple of droopy carrots.



9 comments:

Chairman Bill said...

much better than some of the doggerel prose that passes for poetry these days. Seems anyone who can string two non-rhyming words together is a poet today.

Anonymous said...

Hi Louise, We like the vision of the droopy carrot

Anonymous said...

From the sublime to the ridiculous! LOL Thanks for the laugh!

Louise | Italy said...

@Chairman Bill : That's democracy for you!

Dave King said...

Just think how sad that Keats missed out on the carrot juice.(I imagine!)

Anonymous said...

Every teenage girl should read Keats ... It's better than teenage boys!

Louise | Italy said...

@Dave He might not have died so young if he'd had a juicer...

Anonymous said...

Ah - Keats.. and Byron.. how I swooned over them too.

The Strange Shores Blog Carnival is now published - and you have been featured! Please mention it in a post and ask your readers to go here: http://ladyfi.wordpress.com/2009/03/15/strange-shores-edition-number-heck-whos-counting/

Louise | Italy said...

@LadyFi : Done! And thanks for the update on Braja. Shocking news!

Sunday 15 March 2009

Terza di Quaresima : the third Sunday in Lent

As a teenager I was in love with John Keats. I was as much in love with him as he was with Fanny. As much in love with him as he was with Love itself. I blushed at his sexual imagery, I bathed in his sensual descriptions, I lay despondent with him in "embalmèd darkness", listening to the song of the nightingale. I memorized entire swathes of his sublime poetry just for fun (okay, for exams). I knew it would come in useful one day.

Like this, for instance :

O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been
Cool’d a long age in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
Dance, and Provencal song, and sunburnt mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South,
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple-stainèd mouth....


[John Keats Ode to a Nightingale]

Oh yes, I misspent my youth in this glorious young man's company.

And what do I get these days? Especially these days in Lent when I've sworn off alcohol just to prove a point?

No beaded bubbles winking at me. No sunburnt mirth. No taste of Flora. And definitely no purple-stainèd mouth.

No.

I get the instruction booklet for the juicer and a couple of droopy carrots.



9 comments:

Chairman Bill said...

much better than some of the doggerel prose that passes for poetry these days. Seems anyone who can string two non-rhyming words together is a poet today.

Anonymous said...

Hi Louise, We like the vision of the droopy carrot

Anonymous said...

From the sublime to the ridiculous! LOL Thanks for the laugh!

Louise | Italy said...

@Chairman Bill : That's democracy for you!

Dave King said...

Just think how sad that Keats missed out on the carrot juice.(I imagine!)

Anonymous said...

Every teenage girl should read Keats ... It's better than teenage boys!

Louise | Italy said...

@Dave He might not have died so young if he'd had a juicer...

Anonymous said...

Ah - Keats.. and Byron.. how I swooned over them too.

The Strange Shores Blog Carnival is now published - and you have been featured! Please mention it in a post and ask your readers to go here: http://ladyfi.wordpress.com/2009/03/15/strange-shores-edition-number-heck-whos-counting/

Louise | Italy said...

@LadyFi : Done! And thanks for the update on Braja. Shocking news!