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Showing posts from March, 2011

Days of Courtship

Being an avid reader of time-honoured literature and pre-contemporary works, I have spent days and nights living the stories told by the legendary Jane Austen and playing the arbitrator in Louisa May Alcott’s infamous trilogy. I must confess that I had been most profoundly captivated by the magic of the letters between Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning during the early years of their courtship. The letters that were devotedly passionate yet inscribed with utmost humility. Mind you, this is not a historical literature lesson. It’s no more than a momentary look at what I believe to be the world’s greatest courtship in literature. Robert Browning was fascinated by Elizabeth’s poems and eminence as one of the greatest poets of the Victorian era. In his very first letter to her, Robert wrote: I love your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett, ---and this is no off-hand complimentary letter that I shall write, ---whatever else, no prompt matter-of-course recognition of your g

A Desolate Heart

In the luring midnight gust A restive being heaves a sigh A sigh of love, a sigh of lust Bereavement seeming too well-nigh Bereavement needed much to-night And by the break of dawn ‘tis right To mourn the hours of the night That held that being captive of A heart so fond yet desolate!