As it's Valentine's Day I thought some poetry would be appropriate. I hope I'm quoting this correctly (the two versions I found differed very slightly), so apologies if not, but it's from Kathleen Raine's The Marriage of Psyche:
He has married me with a ring, a ring of bright water
Whose ripples travel from the heart of the sea,
He has married me with a ring of light, the glitter
Broadcast on the swift river.
He has married me with the sun's circle
Too dazzling to see, traced in summer sky.
He has crowned me with the wreath of white cloud
That gathers on the snowy summit of the mountain,
Ringed me round with the world-circling wind,
Bound me to the whirlwind's centre.
He has married me with the orbit of the moon
And with the boundless circle of stars,
With the orbits that measure years, months, days, and nights,
Set the tides flowing,
Command the winds to travel or be at rest.
At the ring's centre,
Spirit, or angel troubling the pool,
Causality not in nature,
Finger's touch that summons at a point, a moment Stars and planets, life and light
Or gathers cloud about an apex of gold,
Transcendent touch of love summons my world into being.
Kathleen Raine was for many years deeply in love with Gavin Maxwell, though theirs was a relationship which was never to be fulfilled. Maxwell's most famous book takes its title, of course, from this poem.
More on Kathleen Raine later.
Beautiful words.
Posted by: Zoe | 14 February 2008 at 02:13 PM
I am intrigued by the mini-background you gave at the bottom, Karen...
Posted by: Simon Thomas | 14 February 2008 at 03:00 PM
A very beautiful post – both the poem and the images – so imaginative and, for me, quite moving.
Posted by: Barbara MacLeod | 14 February 2008 at 07:29 PM
i have an ice cube tray like that of love hearts! Is that ice too?
Posted by: Emma | 15 February 2008 at 01:40 AM
The attributed poem, with slight changes, provided the Frontispiece for Gavin Maxwell's 1960 Ring of Bright Water.
Posted by: Tom Key | 19 April 2014 at 05:30 AM