OK, so we probably know that I like Christina Rossetti's poems A LOT. Like a lot, not as much as Emily Dickinson, but a lot right?
I was in a charity shop last week and bought a 1969 copy of Christina Rossetti's poetry "for young readers" called Doves and Pomegranates. It is a really nice book. It is the sort of book that I would have loved as a child. At primary school we were always having a poetry day or something so I had this one book of poetry and I always HAD to pick something out of this book as it was the only one I had. It served me well, but by year 6 it was a little immature and I had used all the good ones! This book I am going to keep for my kids (if I have any) and they can use this book to death too.
HURT NO LIVING THING
Hurt no living thing:
Ladybird, nor butterfly,
Nor moth with dusty wing,
Nor cricket chirping cheerily,
Nor grasshopper so light of leap,
Nor dancing gnat, nor beetle fat,
Nor harmless worms that creep.
> This was particularly apt as I was lying in the bath reading this poem when I noticed a spider *eugh!* scuttle in through the slightly ajar window and I was wondering whether to kill it, capture it and throw it out the window to certain death or to just let it go but watch it wearily.
I watched it wearily for ten minutes before I couldn't take it any longer and got out the bath. And the water was still warm and the book unfinished. What a very rude spider that still lives.
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2 comments:
Maybe Christina Rossetti would have done the same. Poems that start telling others what to do aren't always the ones their owners live by. They are meant for other people. I'm always called into action when a spider appears - are spiders and women a women thing?
OF
haha I think so! But I managed to de-spider Mary's camping chair at the weekend- I overcome my fear when everyone else is the same... if someone is bolder and doesn't mind spiders I will squeal and let them deal with it. Sometimes it is best for womanly wiles to work in our favour :)
Yes, she does seem to instruct... however living in the Victorian era when they were pinning butterflies and dragonflies to pretty backgrounds to make decorations for their houses it is a little strange... unusual point of view considering the time...
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