A dull lightning of love ... to me: The Pocket University 28 August 2023
Look, I confess: love letters and poems often aren't for me. A good Shakespeare-level sonnet, sure ... or the letters of Heloise and Abelard. But the average work waxing romantic ...
Alexander Pope’s Homer translations don’t really do it for me.1 But his prayer was pretty good.2 And, of course, I loved his “Essay on Criticism” back in my grad school days.3
Here, we get a letter and a poem.
Let’s start with the poem, very short, “Where E’ever You Walk,” a bit of the slightly longer “Summer”:
Where-e'er you walk, cool gales shall fan the glade,
Trees, where you sit, shall crowd into a shade,
Where-e'er you tread, the blushing flow'rs shall rise,
And all things flourish where you turn your eyes.
It’s fine. It’s okay. Wherever you are, nature takes a cue from your wondrous self.
Yay.
Yes.
You’re great.
If you like this poem, I want to know. Tell me below. Or email me. Not because I want to roll my eyes, but I just want to hear what people like about something that doesn’t do it for me.
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