Sunday, April 08, 2012

A poem and its reply!


To a fat lady seen from the train.

Oh why do you walk through the field in gloves,
Missing so much and so much?
O fat white women who nobody loves,
Why do you walk through the field in gloves,
When the grass is as soft as the breast of doves
And shivering sweet to the touch?
O why do you walk through the field in gloves,
Missing so much and so much?

Frances Cornford (1886-1960)

I couldn't begin to tell you why I like this poem - it is one I read/heard somewhere and it got lodged in my head and never left. I think it is something to do with the visual the poem draws.

A little while ago I found G.K. Chesterton's reply to the poem - which I hadn't seen before and to me it adds another wonderful level to the whole thing - they have (IMHO) to be read as a pair.



THE FAT WHITE WOMAN SPEAKS


Why do you rush through the field in trains,
Guessing so much and so much?
Why do you flash through the flowery meads,
Fat-head poet that nobody reads;
And why do you know such a frightful lot
About people in gloves as such?
And how the devil can you be sure,
Guessing so much and so much,
How do you know but what someone who loves
Always to see me in nice white gloves
At the end of the field you are rushing by,
Is waiting for his Old Dutch?

G. K. Chesterton. 1874 - 1936



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