Kisses

They say that kissing's in season when the gorse is in bloom - that is, all year round.  So here are two slight poems, neither great works, but touching both.  First is Sara Teasdale's The Look (she was born in 1884 in Missouri, and died in 1933):

Strephon kissed me in the spring,

      Robin in the fall,

But Colin only looked at me

      And never kissed at all.

 

Strephon's kiss was lost in jest,

    Robin's lost in play,

But the kiss in Colin's eyes

   Haunts me night and day.

 

And the other is another piece of trivial Victoriana, Leigh Hunt's Jenny Kiss'd Me:

Jenny kiss’d me when we met,
Jumping from the chair she sat in;
Time, you thief, who love to get
Sweets into your list, put that in!
Say I'm weary, say I'm sad,
Say that health and wealth have miss’d me;
Say I'm growing old, but add,

     Jenny kiss'd me.

Comments

[glo]

The quotation in my previous comment is from Northanger Abbey, sorry.

[glo]

There is a nice quotation by Miss Austen that I find very appropriate here and that I forgot the other day:
"Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love." (Chapter 4)
Well, from what I could see, there must be nice quotations by Miss Austen about every kind of topics.

[glo]

Wow! First of all, that bright and vivid shade of yellow is so enegetic and appealing in the middle of the winter! It's just like a little piece of sun for us to enjoy. And by the way we had a nice sunny Sunday here... although it has snowed for 4 hours on Saturday afternoon! Anyway, thank you for this nice picture. It also reminds me of the smell of the gorse that is so subtle and nice too.

Now, on the poems, I too agree with what has already - and elegantly - been said about them. I guess it belongs to man's (and woman's) condition and destiny to sigh for past times and actions, whether our desires have been fulfilled or not. I tell myself that unsatisfaction is part of mankind. But my personal philosophy is to be positive and besides, I consider myself as an optimistic person.

I still can't grasp that tricky concept of sentimentality and keep wondering why these poems are not classified as sentimental according to your criteria??!! I hope I'll understand that one day thanks to a careful reading of your blog!

[Lindsay]

Natalie - thank you for your comment, I exactly agree with you. And remembering an earlier comment of yours, I hope you've seen that there are more old fashioned thrillers reviewed today!?

[Natalie T.]

Simply lovely little poems--thank you for posting them. Poetry need not all be of high sentence and keen elegy. The gentle nostaligia of these poems evokes a delicacy for the delights of youth remembered.