National Poetry Month: Poet of the Week

Dame Judith Sitwell
Edith Sitwell (1887-1964), a Brit and contemporary of T.S. Eliot, admired him warmly because he saw the world with different eyes. Her first book of note, Façade,(1922) and her last, The Canticle of the Rose (1949), reflect her own changing way of looking at the world. One would have to describe her as a dark poet of eccentric interests with an exceptionally keen musical ear and discerning mind keenly attuned to the senses. She denied being eccentric, but described herself an “electric eel in a pond of goldfish.”

Came the Great Popinjay

CAME the great Popinjay

Smelling his nosegay:
In cages like grots
The birds sang gavottes.
'Herodiade's flea
Was named sweet Amanda,
She danced like a lady
From here to Uganda.
Oh, what a dance was there!
Long‑haired, the candle
Salome‑like tossed her hair
To a dance tune by Handel.' . . .
Dance they still? Then came
Courtier Death,
Blew out the candle flame
With civet breath.

Further Reading: Victoria of England / Edith Sitwell ; with illlustrations. ; Sitwell, Edith, Dame, 1887‑1964. ; c1936. ; Houghton Mifflin Company.

Coming next week: James Dickey

Content developed by local resident and poet Leland Jamieson