Maire Macrae's Song on the London Underground

For some reason, this Poem on Underground reduced me to tears on my way to Bond Street. It seems to perfectly express an eternity as well as the inevitability of loss.  By Kathleen Raine. 



Maire Macrae's Song

The singer is old and has forgotten
Her girlhood's grief for the young soldier
Who sailed away across the ocean,
Love's brief joy and lonely sorrow:
The song is older than the singer.

The song is older than the singer
Shaped by the love and the long waiting
Of women dead and long forgotten
Who sang before remembered time
To teach the unbroken heart its sorrow.

The girl who waits for her young soldier
Learns from the cadence of a song
How deep her love, how long the waiting.
Sorrow is older than the heart,
Already old when love is young,
The song is older than the sorrow. 

Comments

Anonymous said…
It had the same effect on me this evening!
11 August 2010 at 02:05
Anonymous said…
Me tooo..
17 August 2010 at 14:48
Anonymous said…
It is simply beautiful. Thank you for helping me to find it again.
20 August 2010 at 05:15
Anonymous said…
Agreed; I was just searching for this poem to put tell a friend of mine in New Zealand about it. I actually wrote in down in my notebook. Kathleen Raine was a huge fan of William Blake but I had never read any of her poety. This is a lovely poem
26 March 2012 at 03:43
Anonymous said…
I love it.
29 June 2013 at 20:36
Anonymous said…
It is lovely
29 June 2013 at 20:37
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 30 second rapist

http://www.australian-news.com.au/anti_male.htm "Perth resident Kevin Ibbs was having consensual sex with Christine Watson on the night of 29 November 1986. Watson, a close friend of Ibbs's wife, Katrina Carter, was living in the same house with Ibbs and Carter. The sex act was taking place with the full knowledge of Carter who was in the house at the time. As Ibbs was nearing ejaculation, Watson suddenly withdrew her consent to sex (so she later claimed) and tried to push Ibbs away. He continued for a short time. Too late, he was trapped. He was charged with sexual assault and found guilty under the new law. The judge found that Ibbs had continued sexual intercourse for about thirty seconds without consent (for which he was later dubbed the 30-second rapist). The judge sentenced him to four years imprisonment." http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/1987/46.html "Some years later Watson admitted to police that the whole incident was a set-up orchestrated b
Read more

My interpretation of that wife-beating verse 4:34

Image
004.034 YUSUFALI: Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because Allah has given the one more (strength) than the other, and because they support them from their means. Therefore the righteous women are devoutly obedient, and guard in (the husband's) absence what Allah would have them guard. As to those women on whose part ye fear disloyalty and ill-conduct, admonish them (first), (Next), refuse to share their beds, (And last) beat them (lightly); but if they return to obedience, seek not against them Means (of annoyance): For Allah is Most High, great (above you all). PICKTHAL: Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a wa
Read more

Verse in Koran implicitly accepts the existence of brothels

024.033 YUSUFALI : Let those who find not the wherewithal for marriage keep themselves chaste, until Allah gives them means out of His grace. And if any of your slaves ask for a deed in writing (to enable them to earn their freedom for a certain sum), give them such a deed if ye know any good in them: yea, give them something yourselves out of the means which Allah has given to you. But force not your maids to prostitution when they desire chastity, in order that ye may make a gain in the goods of this life. But if anyone compels them, yet, after such compulsion, is Allah, Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful (to them), PICKTHAL : And let those who cannot find a match keep chaste till Allah give them independence by His grace. And such of your slaves as seek a writing (of emancipation), write it for them if ye are aware of aught of good in them, and bestow upon them of the wealth of Allah which He hath bestowed upon you. Force not your slave-girls to whoredom that ye
Read more