Since I'm on the topic of gay guys. I recently read, for the first time, the poem written by Oscar Wilde's lover Bosie (the one whose idiot father got Wilde thrown in prison) where the sentence "the love that dare not speak its name" came from.
The first time I heard the expression "the love that dare not speaks its name" was from an erudite work friend. It's so pukey sounding, I just love it. But the actual poem is sort of -- sniff sniff -- sweet. I feel like my mother did the first time she saw the context for the song "When I'm calling yoooooooooooouuuuuu" because I was tearing through all the Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy movies; and my mother was ashamed to find that the much-mocked song was actually touching within the context of the movie.
The poem is called "Two Loves." It's pretty bad--here's a typical line.
There were pools that dreamed
Black and unruffled; there were white lilies
A few, and crocuses, and violets
Purple or pale, snake-like fritillaries
Scarce seen for the rank grass, and through green nets
Blue eyes of shy peryenche winked in the sun.
The narrator of the poem comes across two figures, one of whom is pretty jolly, the other looks haunted and depressed. The narrator asks the depressed one what his name is. He says: "Love." The jolly one gets all mad and says: "No I'M Love! He's some upstart running around in my garden." And the depressed one says: "(sniff sniff) Alright, I am the Love that dare not speak its name." Sniff sniff. A good ending to a crappy poem. ...But I still hate Bosie. (I hated him for being an asshole, but apparently he was a total anti-Semite too. Bleh!)
'Sweet youth,
Tell me why, sad and sighing, thou dost rove
These pleasent realms? I pray thee speak me sooth
What is thy name?' He said, 'My name is Love.'
Then straight the first did turn himself to me
And cried, 'He lieth, for his name is Shame,
But I am Love, and I was wont to be
Alone in this fair garden, till he came
Unasked by night; I am true Love, I fill
The hearts of boy and girl with mutual flame.'
Then sighing, said the other, 'Have thy will,
I am the love that dare not speak its name.'
2 comments:
I don't understand the post title. Are you playing on the use of the word "gay" as an insult/pejorative?
Anyway, I kinda glazed over the actual parts of the poem... I couldn't handle it. Do you write poems at all?
Yes, I was playing on the gay as pejorative. There are two expressions which almost disappeared when I was growing up, and they have made such a resurgence I've given up hope they'll ever go away. One is using gay as a putdown, the other is using retard. I was raised to believe doing that is WRONG. Now I hear them everywhere I go and it's obnoxious.
I do not write poetry at all.
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