Saturday, 20 December 2014

And through thick woods one finds a stream astray

Call it a good marriage -
For no one ever questioned
Her warmth, his masculinity,
Their interlocking views;
Except one stray graphologist
Who frowned in speculation
At her h's and her s's,
His p's and w's.

Though few would still subscribe
To the monogamic axiom
That strife below the hip-bones
Need not estrange the heart,
Call it a good marriage:
More drew those two together,
Despite a lack of children,
Than pulled them apart.

Call it a good marriage:
They never fought in public,
They acted circumspectly
And faced the world with pride;
Thus the hazards of their love-bed
Were none of our damned business -
Till as jurymen we sat on
Two deaths by suicide.

          - Robert Graves

2 comments:

  1. Hmmm, an interesting poem. The ending is quite ambiguous.

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  2. It is. However, and heartbreakingly, it is a literal reading that prompts me to include it here.

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