Subject
Fwd: Another LOLITA: Marjorie Allen Seiffert and the 'Poems of
Elijah Hay' in A Woman of Thirty.
Elijah Hay' in A Woman of Thirty.
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Date
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EDNOTE. A resending of an earlier scrambled scrambled version.
----- Forwarded message from clifford@tasmail.com -----
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2004 09:54:46 +1000
From: Clifford Davy <clifford@tasmail.com>
Marjorie Allen Seiffert (1885-1970) published her first volume of poems
called A Woman of Thirty through Alfred A. Knopf in 1919. This work
included a selection under the heading 'Poems of Elijah Hay' . Readers of
Nabokov might be interested by a couple of these poems, one of them called
'Lolita', the other 'Lolita Now is Old'.
Lolita
How curious to find in you, Lolita,
The geisha
Who sits and strums in the immortal
Attitude of submission.
There is a ledger in place of her soul!
Your shoulders sang
For admiration,
Your hair wept for kisses,
Your voice curved softly, a caress--
You came among us as a suppliant,
What had we you desired?
Bringing to market stolen goods,
Holding to view used charms,
Behold a hawker's spirit!
Eagles perch proudly
In isolation,
They swoop to seize a living prey--
Crows hover to feed,
Waiting with patience till the soul is fled
Leaving a helpless body--carrion--
(Vile thoughts obsess me!)
What did you want, Lolita?
Lolita Now Is Old
Lolita now is old,
She sits in the park, watching the young men pass
And huddles her shawl against the cold.
One night last summer when the moon was red,
Lolita, hearing an old song sung
And amorous laughter down the street
Left her bed--
Lolita thought she was young.
With ancient finery on her back,
A lace mantilla hiding her grey head,
She crept into the warm and alien night.
Her trembling knees remembered the languid pace
Of beauty on adventure bent--her fan
Waved challenges with unforgotten grace.
Cunningly she played her part
For to her peering age
Love was a well-remembered art.
Footsteps followed her--footsteps drew near!
She dropped a rose--hush, he is here!
There came hard arms and a panting kiss--
He felt the fraud of those withered lips,
He cursed and spat--"Was it for this,
You came, old woman, to the park?"
Lolita gathered skirts and fled
Through the dim dark.
Lolita huddles her shawl against the cold,
She sits and mumbles by the fire. In truth
Lolita knows she is old.
The full text of A Woman of Thirty by Marjorie Allen Seiffert, including the
'Poems of Elijah Hay', is available through Project Gutenberg
(http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=4556).
For some information about Seiffert, readers might like to have a look at
an article by Catherine Daly on her and the Spectra Hoax in Jacket Magazine
(http://jacketmagazine.com/17/daly-spec.html).
A little more information on 'Spectra' can be found at:
http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/Bai/roba2.htm.
Clifford Davy.
----- End forwarded message -----
----- Forwarded message from clifford@tasmail.com -----
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2004 09:54:46 +1000
From: Clifford Davy <clifford@tasmail.com>
Marjorie Allen Seiffert (1885-1970) published her first volume of poems
called A Woman of Thirty through Alfred A. Knopf in 1919. This work
included a selection under the heading 'Poems of Elijah Hay' . Readers of
Nabokov might be interested by a couple of these poems, one of them called
'Lolita', the other 'Lolita Now is Old'.
Lolita
How curious to find in you, Lolita,
The geisha
Who sits and strums in the immortal
Attitude of submission.
There is a ledger in place of her soul!
Your shoulders sang
For admiration,
Your hair wept for kisses,
Your voice curved softly, a caress--
You came among us as a suppliant,
What had we you desired?
Bringing to market stolen goods,
Holding to view used charms,
Behold a hawker's spirit!
Eagles perch proudly
In isolation,
They swoop to seize a living prey--
Crows hover to feed,
Waiting with patience till the soul is fled
Leaving a helpless body--carrion--
(Vile thoughts obsess me!)
What did you want, Lolita?
Lolita Now Is Old
Lolita now is old,
She sits in the park, watching the young men pass
And huddles her shawl against the cold.
One night last summer when the moon was red,
Lolita, hearing an old song sung
And amorous laughter down the street
Left her bed--
Lolita thought she was young.
With ancient finery on her back,
A lace mantilla hiding her grey head,
She crept into the warm and alien night.
Her trembling knees remembered the languid pace
Of beauty on adventure bent--her fan
Waved challenges with unforgotten grace.
Cunningly she played her part
For to her peering age
Love was a well-remembered art.
Footsteps followed her--footsteps drew near!
She dropped a rose--hush, he is here!
There came hard arms and a panting kiss--
He felt the fraud of those withered lips,
He cursed and spat--"Was it for this,
You came, old woman, to the park?"
Lolita gathered skirts and fled
Through the dim dark.
Lolita huddles her shawl against the cold,
She sits and mumbles by the fire. In truth
Lolita knows she is old.
The full text of A Woman of Thirty by Marjorie Allen Seiffert, including the
'Poems of Elijah Hay', is available through Project Gutenberg
(http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=4556).
For some information about Seiffert, readers might like to have a look at
an article by Catherine Daly on her and the Spectra Hoax in Jacket Magazine
(http://jacketmagazine.com/17/daly-spec.html).
A little more information on 'Spectra' can be found at:
http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/Bai/roba2.htm.
Clifford Davy.
----- End forwarded message -----