The London Mercury, Vol. I, Nos. 1-6, November 1919 to April 1920Various
General
The London Mercury, Vol. I, Nos. 1-6, November 1919 to April 1920
Various
English literature -- Periodicals; London (England) -- Periodicals
In April, between the 5th and 12th, William went into Yorkshire upon
an errand which she knew and dreaded. Her trouble makes the words
throb. "Monday, 12th.... The ground covered with snow. Walked to T.
Wilkinson's and sent for letters. The woman brought me one from William
and Mary. It was a sharp windy night. Thomas Wilkinson came with me to
Barton and questioned me like a catechiser all the way. Every question
was like the snapping of a little thread about my heart. I was so full
of thought of my half-read letter and other things. I was glad when he
left me. Then I had time to look at the moon while I was thinking of
my own thoughts. The moon travelled through the clouds, tinging them
yellow as she passed along, with two stars near her, one larger than
the other.... At this time William, as I found the next day, was riding
by himself between Middleham and Barnard Castle." I don't know where
else to find the vague torment of thought, its way of enhancing colour
and form in nature, more intensely observed. Next day: "When I returned
_William_ was come. _The surprise shot through me_." This woman was not
so much poet as crystal vase. You can see the thought cloud and take
shape.
The twin life was resumed for yet a little while. In the same month
come her descriptions of the daffodils in Gowbarrow Park, and of the
scene by Brothers Water, which prove to anybody in need of proof
that she was William's well-spring of poesy. Not that the journal is
necessarily involved. No need to suppose that he even read it. But
that she could make him see, and be moved by, what she had seen is
proved by this: "17th.... I saw a robin chasing a scarlet butterfly
this morning"; and "Sunday, 18th.... William wrote the poem on _The
Robin and the Butterfly_." No; beautiful beyond praise as the journals
are, it is certain that she was more beautiful than they. And what a
discerning illuminative eye she had! "As I lay down on the grass, I
observed the glittering silver line on the ridge of the backs of the
sheep, owing to their situation respecting the sun, which made them
look beautiful, but with something of strangeness, like animals of
another kind, as if belonging to a more splendid world...." What a
woman to go a-gipsying through the world with!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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