Gianciotto découvre Paolo et Francesca: Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1819
She moves in next door, we huddle over
The doomed infatuated ones in Dante,
My blood over-heats, the world-wind blows,
She looks pale as Millamant the Sunday
We dine, and our fate is sealed; like a recurrence
Of fate dream, she moves in, we linger
Together over Dante, and when as not
Quite lovers we hurtle off into
The black light storm, I feel like I can't breathe;
By the end of April, wild desire's
Escaped the world, with its hundred eyes;
Ahead lies loving her, and the pale fever.
From Junkets on a Sad Planet: Scenes from the Life of John Keats by Tom Clark
Oh, Romantic love. Star-crossed lovers. Paolo and Francesca, Romeo and Juliet, Catherine and Heathcliff. The forbidden, the impossible. The harder the struggle to be together, the deeper in love they fall. I wonder how the story would unfold should they be successful in escaping their doom...
ReplyDeleteThe crestfallen aftermath, the mundane divisions of labour. Who would do the dishes? Change the nappies? Somehow one can't imagine Heathcliff helping with the shopping, Romeo taking out the trash, Paolo donning an apron. Fates perhaps even worse than doom...
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