On the Margins

Just thought I would write something about poets and characters in poetry who were on the margins of society.

The first example is the lady in Frances Cornford's poem, A LADY SEEN FROM THE TRAIN:

O why do you walk through the fields
in gloves,
Missing so much and so much,
O fat white woman whom nobody loves,
Why do you walk through the fields
in gloves
When the grass is soft as the breast of doves
And shivering sweet to the touch?
O why do you walk through the fields
in gloves,
Missing so much and so much.

I've always loved this poem, ever since I discovered it in the old Oxford Anthology they used for teaching us poetry one year in high school. It's funny how you can find fresh meaning from something you have read a thousand times. It just struck me that this woman was unable to find comfort from nature; nature is something that can be a solace even for very depressed people but this lady held herself apart from it. Walking can be another solace but she does not appear to have enjoyed herself as she walked.

I will also be dealing with the following link:

oldpoetry.com/oauthor/show/Charlotte_Mary_Mew, a poem called MY HEART IS LAME. It's another poem about someone who feels she is on the margins of life. At least, that is how I interpret it.

Will also refer to a poem by Federico Garcia Lorca

SONG OF THE HORSEMAN

Cordoba.
Remote and lonely.

Jet-black mare and full round moon.
With olives in my saddle bags.
Although I know the road so well
I shall not go to Cordoba.

Across the plain, across the wind,
Jet-black mare and full red moon,
Death is gazing down upon me,
Down from the towers of Cordoba.

Ay! The road so dark and long
Ay! My mare is tired yet brave.
Death is waiting for me there
Before I get to Cordoba.

Cordoba.
Remote and lonely.

So there are three different takes on loneliness and I may add some more poetic examples.

Why are these three people so isolated? In the first poem, it is actually the poet who perceives the lady as lonely; it is possible she isn't lonely at all but she appears lonely, walking the fields alone in the white gloves which the poet sees as a symbol of her aloofness. We don't really know what is on this woman's mind but the poet sees her as isolated and perhaps anti-social as if going into society would be a better way to behave.

The horseman in the second poem is somewhat easier to read because it is written from his point of view. He is isolated by fear and riding towards an unspecified situation in Cordoba. From what he says, though he doesn't say a lot, the journey may result in his death. He may be a soldier but that is just my opinion.


MORE OBSERVATIONS TO COME BUT, IF ANYONE VENTURES INTO THIS COLUMN, YOU MAY MAKE COMMENTS