AliceOphelia
fell into the mirror
escape is easy---
escape is easy---
on paper.
Alice's questions
run off with her head
too big too small
the world's gone mad
and time is all
that matters.
Alice regrets her intrusion SEARCHES
frenetically for an exit FINDS
she's lost the key to the ladies' room
she's lost the key to the ladies' room
while the rabbit rushes on...
Sweet Ophelia goes gently,
the silken surface of the pond
mistaken for glass,
wades in
and the whisper of watergrass
lulls her softly to sleep.
6 comments:
You're on to something here. AliceOphelia and who else? I would lengthen the poem and pick additional female protagonists/characters and use the poetry to show not merely the themes common to the characters but what it means to be woman; or better yet, what it means to be a female character written by a man who thinks he knows what it means to be woman.
What it means to be a woman....the idea is that you must be everything to everybody (like Alice in the picture...notice how unstressed she seems, and she looks pretty wise for a little girl). And now little girls being raised in the culture of self-esteem get the message that if they can dream it, they can be it....who knew astronauts needed math? In the long run, it becomes the culture of anti-self-esteem. And all to often, the response a race against the clock or staying in bed with the covers pulled over one's head. Women walk a fine line. (my feminist lecture for the day....)
But I like your idea and I'd like to see your take on it...as a married man with daughters.
My (completely honest) take: I don't care if my woman is all things to all people, just all things to me, depending upon my mood and whim of the moment, which she must be able to discern in a nanosecond and adapt accordingly.
But what I teach my daughter is this:
Decide what you want; see yourself as unconquerable; make yourself unconquerable; then go get it.
If you don't do these things, you will become what someone else wants, be almost always conquerable, and get nothing (but disdain).
One woman you may want to work into AliceOphelia: Eustacia Vye.
My chauvinist lecture of the day.
you know...I've never read "Return of the Native." I think I got turned off Hardy in High School. I should definitely pick him up.
Make yourself unconquerable...goals, hard work...yup.
I'm reading Return of the Native and Jude the Obscure right now. I get excerpts of the novels from dailylit.com. They send me a page a day. I read them at lunch, along with other miscellaneous stuff.
That's quite a list over there. Lotta good sources for Latin and Greek....
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