Sunday 13 January 2013

Come into the Garden ( of live flowers ) Maud...



'There has fallen a splendid tear
        From the passion-flower at the gate.
She is coming, my dove, my dear;
        She is coming, my life, my fate;
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.'

'Come into the garden Maud'
a parlour song from 'Maude and other poems'Tennyson 
1855




Dearest Emily,

Our long deceased neighbour penned his 'scandalous' poem in 1855. Living here at the Bay, and wandering across the Down in his wide brimmed hat and long cloak, he strode and composed, often using flavours from the uncompromising and beautiful natural landscapes around him. Birds, flowers, rocks all influenced his narratives.

Maud is a long and complicated work, touching on an ambivalent attitude to the Crimean War- and this is probably why it had its detractors. It's a heavy piece about love, insanity and death.

It made Ally a heap of money though- enough to exercise his option to buy his beloved Farringford ( and three years later build our house! )


Dodgy Dodgson fell out with Alfred big-time in 1870. Previously their discourse had been cordial ( though as we have seen Emily may well have had certain concerns over how Dodgson had behaved around the family. ) He certainly wasn't a warmly appreciated friend or a part of their circle and hardly ever cropped up in any of Emily's lengthy and wide correspondences.
This time though- Alfred saw red over Dodgson repeatedly requesting permission to keep and show to friends two private and unpublished works that Tennyson had allowed a young composer to set one of to music.
Emily fired off a letter ending "A gentleman should understand that when an author does not give his works to the public he has his own reasons for it".

Dodgson fired back- but as we are increasingly finding usual behaviour for him- his ultimate revenge was parody. His satisfaction appears evermore to me to ' be clever, and so clever, that only you know the secret '. From our focus of investigation- Through the Looking Glass, and the chapter entitled 'The Garden of Live Flowers'.

'She's coming!' cried the Larkspur. 'I hear her footstep, thump,thump, along the gravel-walk!'


Only this time, it wasn't Maud- it was our own 'Red Queen'!

Until next time my little one,

Your ever-loving Grand-mother, GiGi xxx

CREDIT DIRECTLY HERE GOES TO JOHN BATCHELOR- 'TENNYSON. TO STRIVE TO SEEK TO FIND' CHATTO AND WINDUS 2012




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