Parnassian Moments 2 June: Victoria Mary Sackville-West (Vita)

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2 June, Poetry, Today's Memories, Victoria Mary Sackville-West (Vita)

Victoria Mary Sackville-West (Vita)

Poet: Victoria Mary Sackville-West (Vita)

Dates: 9 March 1892 – 2 June 1962

Nationality: English

Title of Poem: Mariana In The North

All her youth is gone, her beautiful youth outworn,
Daughter of tarn and tor, the moors that were once her home
No longer know her step on the upland tracks forlorn
Where she was wont to roam.

All her hounds are dead, her beautiful hounds are dead,
That paced beside the hoofs of her high and nimble horse,
Or streaked in lean pursuit of the tawny hare that fled
Out of the yellow gorse.

All her lovers have passed, her beautiful lovers have passed,
The young and eager men that fought for her arrogant hand,
And the only voice which endures to mourn for her at the last
Is the voice of the lonely land.

 

Brief Biography: Vita was an author and poet. She was also well-known for her exuberant lifestyle, a passionate affair with Virginia Woolf and Sissinghurst Castle Garden. Vita married Harold Nicholson in 1913. The marriage was an open one and both Vita and Harold were involved in same-sex relationships.

 

 

Parnassian Moments 9 March: Victoria Mary Sackville-West (Vita)

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9 March, Poetry, Today's Memories, Victoria Mary Sackville-West (Vita)

Victoria Mary Sackville-West (Vita)

Poet: Victoria Mary Sackville-West (Vita)

Dates: 9 March 1892 – 2 June 1962

Nationality: English

Title of Poem: Full Moon

She was wearing the coral taffeta trousers
Someone had brought her from Ispahan,
And the little gold coat with pomegranate blossoms,
And the coral-hafted feather fan;
But she ran down a Kentish lane in the moonlight,
And skipped in the pool of the moon as she ran.

She cared not a rap for all the big planets,
For Betelgeuse or Aldebaran,
And all the big planets cared nothing for her,
That small impertinent charlatan;
But she climbed on a Kentish stile in the moonlight,
And laughed at the sky through the sticks of her fan.

 

 

Brief Biography: Vita was an author and poet. She was also well-known for her exuberant lifestyle, a passionate affair with Virginia Woolf and Sissinghurst Castle Garden. Vita married Harold Nicholson in 1913. The marriage was an open one and both Vita and Harold were involved in same-sex relationships.

 

Parnassian Moments 2 June: Victoria Mary Sackville-West (Vita)

Tags

2 June, Poetry, Today's Memories, Victoria Mary Sackville-West (Vita)

Victoria Mary Sackville-West (Vita)

 

Poet: Victoria Mary Sackville-West (Vita)

Dates: 9 March 1892 – 2 June 1962

Nationality: English

Title of Poem: Full Moon

She was wearing the coral taffeta trousers
Someone had brought her from Ispahan,
And the little gold coat with pomegranate blossoms,
And the coral-hafted feather fan;
But she ran down a Kentish lane in the moonlight,
And skipped in the pool of the moon as she ran.

She cared not a rap for all the big planets,
For Betelgeuse or Aldebaran,
And all the big planets cared nothing for her,
That small impertinent charlatan;
But she climbed on a Kentish stile in the moonlight,
And laughed at the sky through the sticks of her fan.

 

Brief Biography: Vita was an author and poet. She was also well-known for her exuberant lifestyle, a passionate affair with Virginia Woolf and Sissinghurst Castle Garden. Vita married Harold Nicholson in 1913. The marriage was an open one and both Vita and Harold were involved in same-sex relationships.

Parnassian Moments 9 March: Victoria Mary Sackville-West (Vita)

Tags

9 March, Poetry, Today's Memories, Victoria Mary Sackville-West (Vita)

Victoria Mary Sackville-West (Vita)

 

Poet: Victoria Mary Sackville-West (Vita)

Dates: 9 March 1892 – 2 June 1962

Nationality: English

Title of Poem: The Greater Cats

The greater cats with golden eyes
Stare out between the bars.
Deserts are there, and the different skies,
And night with different stars.
They prowl the aromatic hill,
And mate as fiercely as they kill,
To roam, to live, to drink their fill;
But this beyond their wit know I:
Man loves a little, and for long shall die.

Their kind across the desert range
Where tulips spring from stones,
Not knowing they will suffer change
Or vultures pick their bones.
Their strength’s eternal in their sight,
They overtake the deer in flight,
And in their arrogance they smite;
But I am sage, if they are strong:
Man’s love is transient as his death is long.

Yet oh what powers to deceive!
My wit is turned to faith,
And at this moment I believe
In love, and scout at death.
I came from nowhere, and shall be
Strong, steadfast, swift, eternally:
I am a lion, a stone, a tree,
And as the Polar star in me
Is fixed my constant heart on thee.
Ah, may I stay forever blind
With lions, tigers, leopards, and their kind.

 

Brief Biography: Vita was an author and poet. She was also well-known for her exuberant lifestyle, a passionate affair with Virginia Woolf and Sissinghurst Castle Garden. Vita married Harold Nicholson in 1913. The marriage was an open one and both Vita and Harold were involved in same-sex relationships.