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The Truth of Woman -- Sir Walter Scott

Guest poem submitted by Suresh Ramasubramanian:
(Poem #415) The Truth of Woman
 Woman's faith, and woman's trust -
 Write the characters in the dust;
 Stamp them on the running stream,
 Print them on the moon's pale beam,
 And each evanescent letter
 Shall be clearer, firmer, better,
 And more permanent, I ween,
 Than the thing those letters mean.

 I have strain'd the spider's thread
 'Gainst the promise of a maid;
 I have weigh'd a grain of sand
 'Gainst her plight of heart and hand;
 I told my true love of the token,
 How her faith proved light, and her word was broken:
 Again her word and truth she plight,
 And I believed them again ere night.
-- Sir Walter Scott
[from "The Betrothed" - 1825]

Scott has a well deserved reputation for writing novels and poems full of
romance, humor and swashbuckling action.  This is one of the few poems (and I've
read them all) in which I've seen him write in such a bitter vein.

Love is blind, they say (who ~are~ "they", by the way?). Scott sounds more like
Auden in one of his blacker moods here (and Auden typically sounds like a
cuckold whining for sympathy - though it is a beautiful whine, I must say).

Scott is, by the way, my favorite author ~and~ poet - even P.G.Wodehouse would
be hard pressed to match his talent for gentle humour and his deft phrasing.
Try reading Scott's note on the "Stirrup Cup" in "Waverly" for an idea of what I
mean.

Suresh.

14 comments: ( or Leave a comment )

kamagra said...

it's a good poem and at the same time it's one of my favorites poets, so thanks for sharing this, just let me bring a new poem, its title is " evita the bitch" I hope you like it!

I met a young child beside a dead pony,
I met a white man who walked a black dog,
I met a young woman whose body was burning,
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow,
I met one man who was wounded in love,
I met another man who was wounded with hatred,
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall. 23jj

du lich said...

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Although not appreciate the m88.net
on the list of "bombing" as Ronaldo, but Messi is not completely lost control. New Tactic of Barca this season continues to get Messi is the center. 27-year-old striker will certainly put more balls than that coach Gerardo Martino former. 2014/15 by Pichichi race so many potential surprises.

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