Reflections: Gothic Halloween in Poetry
10.31.18 Hello everyone! Last day of October, how about some poetry? Again? Yes, again, but this time with some gothic themes to it. Here are three to read… Ravenna by Oscar Wilde (Newdigate prize poem recited in the Sheldonian Theatre Oxford June 26th, 1878. To my friend George Fleming author of ‘The Nile Novel’ and ‘Mirage’) I. A year ago I breathed the Italian air, – And yet, methinks this northern Spring is fair,- These fields made golden with the flower of March, The throstle singing on the feathered larch, The cawing rooks, the wood-doves fluttering by, The little clouds that race across the sky; And fair the violet’s gentle drooping head, The primrose, pale for love uncomforted, The rose that burgeons on the climbing briar, The crocus-bed, (that seems a moon of fire Round-girdled with a purple marriage-ring); And all the flowers of our English Spring, Fond snowdrops, and the bright-starred daffodil. Up starts the lark beside the murmuring mill, And breaks the gossamer-threads of early dew; And down the river, like a flame …
