Say I Do This by C. K. Stead

Author:C. K. Stead
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Auckland University Press
Published: 2023-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

The thousand peaceful towns

for the lady herself

It was meant to show when ‘l’ sounded as ‘l’

and not as ‘y’. English but fluent in French,

a Paris professor, surely she’d heard it?

But as a way of rhyme-remembering

like a tale of travel in a time of peace –

no, she hadn’t. I was showing off of course.

I’d quoted Paul Verlaine’s lachrymose sonnet

about the phantom woman who dried his tears.

‘Brune, blonde ou rousse?’ he asks himself, quite sure

only that her voice was lovely – ‘doux et sonore’.

I was pleased with myself for giving his mute ‘e’s

the full value those alexandrines needed

to make the iambic count. Was she impressed?

Not really. She probably thought I was flirting.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.