Birds by the Snow
Emily started university today, studying Archaeology at York.
I took her to the station and sobbed gently at losing my little girl for ever.
Jolly good job she came back again this evening. She and Gareth will be moving there in a few weeks. I'm taking my trauma in stages.
She had a good day and plans to join, amongst others, the Quiet Society who sit in a room together and read books. I can see this would appeal to her.
When she was born, of the names we had selected to choose from, she was clearly an Emily. And, in choosing that name, one of the people foremost in my mind was the American nineteenth-century poet Emily Dickinson.
Her short, compressed, unusual poems with their idiosyncratic punctuation have always appealed to me.
Water, is taught by thirst.
Land - by the Oceans passed.
Transport - by throe -
Peace - by its battles told
Love, by memorial mold
Birds, by the Snow
They take a bit of thinking about, this one included, until you turn it round and say you don't know the meaning of water until you've been thirsty: you don't know the meaning of land until you've been out at sea: you don't know the meaning of a transport of delight until you've been in the throes of agony - - and so on.
Emily - our Emily - likes Emily Dickinson's poetry too. And when our Emily was born I hoped that she'd be like Emily Dickinson in some ways - a quirky, interesting, original thinker.
It's not always a good idea to name children after other people. I was at school with a girl called Titania - nemed after the Queen of the Fairies of course - and, inevitably, she was a big, lumpy, plodding kind of a girl.
But, in our Emily's case, I think it worked.
I took her to the station and sobbed gently at losing my little girl for ever.
Jolly good job she came back again this evening. She and Gareth will be moving there in a few weeks. I'm taking my trauma in stages.
She had a good day and plans to join, amongst others, the Quiet Society who sit in a room together and read books. I can see this would appeal to her.
When she was born, of the names we had selected to choose from, she was clearly an Emily. And, in choosing that name, one of the people foremost in my mind was the American nineteenth-century poet Emily Dickinson.
Her short, compressed, unusual poems with their idiosyncratic punctuation have always appealed to me.
Water, is taught by thirst.
Land - by the Oceans passed.
Transport - by throe -
Peace - by its battles told
Love, by memorial mold
Birds, by the Snow
They take a bit of thinking about, this one included, until you turn it round and say you don't know the meaning of water until you've been thirsty: you don't know the meaning of land until you've been out at sea: you don't know the meaning of a transport of delight until you've been in the throes of agony - - and so on.
Emily - our Emily - likes Emily Dickinson's poetry too. And when our Emily was born I hoped that she'd be like Emily Dickinson in some ways - a quirky, interesting, original thinker.
It's not always a good idea to name children after other people. I was at school with a girl called Titania - nemed after the Queen of the Fairies of course - and, inevitably, she was a big, lumpy, plodding kind of a girl.
But, in our Emily's case, I think it worked.
posted by Daphne at 6:49 pm
3 Comments:
Titania? I thought I was the queen of the faeries?
No, David Robertson is the queen of the faeries (it was explained at his birthday party).
And everyone in the world knows David Robertson, so this post must make sense to you... right??
Puts hand up to say 'no', but doesn't see any others up...so lowers hand sheepishly.
Ian
Post a Comment
<< Home