(Untitled)

[bethia_cathrain]

I found it among curios and silver

Comments

[cthonus]

There's something about that poem that makes me think of Virginia Woolf or Elizabeth Bishop.

[bethia_cathrain]

I agree - especially certain parts of The Waves. I don't think I've read any Elizabeth Bishop, though - have you a favourite?

[cthonus]

Florida, I think.

"The state with the prettiest name,
the state that floats in brackish water,
held together by mangrove roots..."

Have you read any Anna Akhmatova? I'm thinking specifically of the Epilogue to Requiem written at the height of Stalinist terror:

"...I have woven for them a great shroud
Out of the poor words I overheard them speak.
I remember them always and everywhere,
And if they shut my tormented mouth
Through which a hundred million of my people cry,
Let them remember me also..."

[bethia_cathrain]

I haven't read any of her work, no - I'm sure there's some in the National Library. It reminds me a little of H.D. as well - do you know her? - I've been re-reading her novels in various breaks from my current chapter this week.

[cthonus]

I can't say I do. I'm woefully under-read when it comes to anything critically acclaimed. Most of my books have been picked up on a whim.