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Oh! Ever Thus, From Childhood's Hour -- Thomas Moore

       
(Poem #1938) Oh! Ever Thus, From Childhood's Hour
 Oh! ever thus, from childhood's hour,
   I've seen my fondest hopes decay;
 I never lov'd a tree or flower,
   But 'twas the first to fade away.
 I never nurs'd a dear gazelle,
   To glad me with its soft black eye,
 But when it came to know me well,
   And love me, it was sure to die!
-- Thomas Moore
   (from 'Lalla Rookh, An Oriental Romance')

There is about "old" poetry - particularly that of the Romantic and Georgian
periods - a quality that I find sadly absent in more modern verse: the
underlying sense that rhymed and metrical verse is a *natural* medium in
which to express one's thoughts and writings. Today's excerpt is a wonderful
example of this sort of unselfconsciousness - the verse flows easily and
naturally, but the primary focus is the dialogue between Moore and the
reader, and at no point do we stop and feel that what he has to say is in
any way constrained by the requirements of the form.

While "Lalla Rookh" itself has faded into relative obscurity, the above
quoted lines - particularly the second quatrain - have remained both
well-known and popular. (In particular, no fan of Wodehouse can fail to be
familiar with the "dear gazelle"!). And though it is a verse that has
inevitably attracted its share of parodies, this is more due to its
distinctiveness than to any inherent mockability. (That said, some of the
parodies are truly delightful, such as Tom Hood Jr.'s

  I never nursed a dear gazelle,
     To glad me with its dappled hide,
  But when it came to know me well,
     It fell upon the buttered side.

or Henry Leigh's

  My rich and aged Uncle John
    Has known me long and loves me well
  But still persists in living on -
    I would he were a young gazelle.
)

I've remarked, about some of Moore's other works, that their salient feature
is their musicality; today's piece does exhibit the same wonderful sense of
the sound and flow of the words, but it is more of a background quality.
Also, the fact that this is not a standalone poem but part of an extended
epic lends it a very different character (and indeed, by choosing to excerpt
such a small piece, I have inevitably sacrificed some of that character). To
convey some idea of the tradeoff involved,
http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/1492.html for instance has a longer
excerpt that loses some of the distinctive beauty of the shorter piece, but
gives far more of the flavour of its setting.

martin

[Links]

Biography:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Moore

Full text of "Lalla Rookh"
  http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/lallarookh/index.html

A bit about Lalla Rookh:
  [broken link] http://www.wwnorton.com/nto/romantic/topic_4/moore.htm

60 comments: ( or Leave a comment )

William Grey said...

Another celebrated parody from James Payn (1830-1898):

I never had a piece of toast
Particularly long and wide,
But fell upon the sanded floor,
And always on the buttered side.

Thomas Moore represents a genre extensively exploited for parody by Lewis
Caroll in his 'Alice' books.

William Grey

mlynd54 said...

> I never nursed a dear gazelle,
> To glad me with its dappled hide,
> But when it came to know me well,
> It fell upon the buttered side.

Surely that parody is, correctly,

I never had a piece of toast,
Particularly long and wide,
But would fall upon the sandy floor,
And always on the buttered side.

??

Cheers, Mike Lynd

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This all stuff is about the childhood and i am so glad to read about this. In this poem you have shared all memorable moments of your childhood, childhood memory is most expensive and precious.

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It's a rather sad poem. If there is a melody for it, it will be a song that touches our heart.

Imitation Sac said...

In my view ,the old poetry has an eternal point that shines in the human and literature history ever. So that's why they are called "classic"

repliche borse said...

Nowadays,it seems hard to learn how to write an old-fashion poetry or lyric. But anyway,Thomas Moore's works just make me recall the most beautiful moments in childhood. To imitate it or not, we should keep that fresh in our memory.

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Many times the lyric just haunted in my dream

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Classic as it is. No wonder it will be the moms' favorite when tucking their kids in bed.

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