A contribution by Andrew Slade - "The Disillusioned Bride"

Andrew Slade, whose marital status is uncertain, emailed me this day:

I came across this MS poem in a National Trust House at the weekend; attributed 2 Jane Taylor (1783-1824) "The Lavenham poetess". But it might as well b entitled "The Disillusioned Husband", written at the height of the Age of Romanticism: unrealistic expectations unrealised!


Please post it under my real name,

THE DISILLUSIONED BRIDE

The twentieth week is well-nigh past,
Since first in Church we two were asked:
Oh! Would we had not gone at last.

=My husband.

Thy kindness has a fainter blow,
I see thee daily cooler grow,
How canst thou bear to serve me so?


=My husband.

And when sometimes thou wouldst fulfill
Some little office for me still,
Thy love now seconds not thy will.

=My husband.

Safely thou showest a tyrant's heart,
For Hymen's thread with cruel art
Hath bound us so we must not part.

=My husband.

Thy unpolite expressions seem
With no affection now to team
And never are my charms the theme.

=My husband.

Thy frowning eyes once mildly bright,
Oh! now more frightful in my sight
Than all the gloomy fiends of night.

=My husband.

Oh could I see nor them nor thee,
A happy creature I should be,
'Twould be a happy day for me.

=My husband.

Partaker of this strange decline,
My feelings too their warmth resign:
My flames can cool as well as thine.


=My husband.

Such feeble signs of love thou showest:
Thou does not love at all, thou knowest,
So don't pretend to say thou dost!

=My husband.

For me to love thus treated ill
Is quite beyond a woman's skill:
Indeed I neither can nor will.

=My husband.

But if much cooler thou dost grow,
Some proper spirit I shall show:
I will not long be treated so,

=My husband.

For should thy conduct still be cast
With much resemblance of the past,
I'll leave thee in the lurch at last.

=My husband.

A sad poem, I note. Chinese wisdom has it that husband and wife should always treat each other in the home as the other's honoured guest. Perhaps such a thing is only possible in the context of a Domestic Partnership, a concept I hope to pioneer and exploit commercially, in time, with the right sort of Domestic Partner.

Andromeda is still seeking her Perseus.

Comments

I came across you post and found it most enchanting. I no longer expect my bride to be anything but disillusioned. Time heals all save a broken heart!

Popular posts from this blog

The 30 second rapist

Verse in Koran implicitly accepts the existence of brothels

My interpretation of that wife-beating verse 4:34