The Lovely April

I have finished my exams.
I have taken my last paper, ever, as an undergraduate.
Wow. I now officially have no purpose in life for the next few months.
Therefore I take it upon myself, to enlighten you, dear reader, on some Stuff.
The first Stuff will be poetry. Before you die of boredom from the sheer mention of it, hear me out.
Or don't, if you don't want to, it's not like I'm going to stop writing for you anyway.
Ha ha ha. In yo face.

Now, poetry can be repetitive. Most of it, like songs, are about the eternal soppiness of love. I have no interest in that. Maybe because I am not in love, but most probably because there are more interesting things than that.
For example, women.
Most poets are men. Most famous poets anyway. Therefore, they write about women. Even Byron and Wilde didn't poetise men. That I know of. Although Wilde did write Dorian Gray.

I am not a poetry expert. I just like these poems. And I think they deserve to be appreciated.

1. Sonnet III by Shakespeare

This sonnet rocks because it's about growing old and losing time. Okay, that's not why it rocks. It rocks because everytime I read these lines,

Thou art thy mother's glass and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime.

I am reminded that I do look like my Mum when she was my age, and I get a warm fuzzy feeling. Except my Mum was hotter, but I just normally don't think about that part. But imagine that; looking at something you created, a child, and seeing you in it, knowing that in some way you are going to live forever.

Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest
Now is the time that face should form another.

2. Faustine by Swinburne

After reading this, I decided to name my daughter Faustine. Anne Faustine, or Faustine Rose or something equally innocent. And then when she's old enough to appreciate literary references, I will unveil to her her own Crowning Moment of Awesome by revealing her namesake.

I know what queen at first you were,
As though I had seen
Red gold and black imperious hair
Twice crown Faustine.

Some children may flip when they understand the connotations, but my kid will be cool about it. She'll probably also wear lots of black. And resemble Wednesday Addams.
The point is, she will not hate me for the rest of her life for naming her after what is essentially Lilith in this almost frightening poem that veers between condemning the title character, sympathising with her fate, and longing for her cruel beauty.

You have the face that suits a woman
For her soul’s screen—
The sort of beauty that’s called human
In hell, Faustine.

3. Requiescat by Oscar Wilde

All her bright golden hair
Tarnished with rust,
She that was young and fair
Fallen to dust.

Dear blonde dead sister.
I miss you.

Peace, peace, she cannot hear
Lyre or sonnet,
All my life's buried here,
Heap earth upon it.


4. Keats' Le Belle Dame Sans Merci

I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful—a faery's child.

Similar to Faustine. Kind of. The titular Lady Without Mercy is actually a fairy, and it refers to old legends when fairies used to bewitch men to follow them to fairyland, and either stay there until a gazillion years have past and all they knew is gone, or escape but forever long for the fairy touch.
I suspect the fairy ploy has something to do with mushrooms though.
Magic mushrooms.

And sure in language strange she said,
'I love thee true.'

5. The Lady of Shalott by Tennyson

Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack'd from side to side;
"The curse is come upon me," cried
The Lady of Shalott.

Tennyson rocks. Try reading it out loud. When you're alone, duh, you don't want people thinking you're a complete lunatic.
Basically Shalott (nothing to do with garlic) has a perfectly normal life locked in her tower room, cursed to spin thread all day and spy on young lovers from her window, until jengjengjeng guess who shows up?...LANCELOT.
The man is EVERYWHERE.
So he screws up yet another woman's life.

But Lancelot mused a little space
He said, "She has a lovely face;
God in his mercy lend her grace,
The Lady of Shalott."

Yeah, asshole. You freakin' murdered her with your charisma. You'd better say something nice.