Back in 1993, The Divine Comedy had the utter genius to set three of Wordsworth’s poems to music, ('Lucy', final track on the album Liberation). My heart melted.
A scant five years later, he was writing about women with fat arses serving tea on a coach. And my heart broke.
Fame did you no good at all, did it, Mr Hannon?
I TRAVELLED AMONG UNKNOWN MEN (Wm Wordsworth)
I travelled among unknown men,
In lands beyond the sea;
Nor, England! did I know till then
What love I bore to thee.
'Tis past, that melancholy dream!
Nor will I quit thy shore
A second time; for still I seem
To love thee more and more.
Among thy mountains did I feel
The joy of my desire;
And she I cherished turned her wheel
Beside an English fire.
Thy mornings showed, thy nights concealed
The bowers where Lucy played;
And thine too is the last green field
That Lucy's eyes surveyed.
SHE DWELT AMONG THE UNTRODDEN WAYS (Wm Wordsworth)
She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
A Maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love:
A violet by a mossy stone
Half hidden from the eye!
Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.
She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and oh,
The difference to me!
A SLUMBER DID MY SPIRIT SEAL (Wm Wordsworth)
A slumber did my spirit seal;
I had no human fears:
She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.
No motion has she now, no force;
She neither hears nor sees;
Rolled round in earth's diurnal course,
With rocks, and stones, and trees.
montontonjon
You wouldn't mind, would you, if I just took a moment to quietly compliment you on your blog? I've just read it in its entirety and have nothing but praise. I'll drop by again.
Regards,
JHP