[1191] A Farewell

I
My fairest child, I have no song to give you;
No lark could pipe to skies so dull and grey:
Yet, ere we part, one lesson I can leave you
      For every day.

II
Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever;
Do noble things, not dream them, all day long:
And so make life, death, and that vast for-ever
      One grand, sweet song.

	-- Charles Kingsley

	   (1819-1875)

A prime example of what I call Good Advice to the Younger Generation - what
raises this one above the common herd, I think, is the supreme quotability
of the line "Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever" - Kingsley
gets it absolutely right, though ironically the line itself is nothing if
not clever.

Whether one good line is enough to make a poem noteworthy is debatable -
personally, I believe it is, especially in so short a piece. It possibly
helps that I liked the quote long before I knew there was a poem attached to
it. I also belong to the school of poetry criticism that looks for a poem's
good points first, and speaks only later, if at all, of its flaws - this is,
after all, about the enjoyment of poetry far more than it is about its
dissection. (Which is not to say that I don't enjoy tearing into a
particularly bad poem every now and then :)).

martin

Links:
  Biography of Kingsley:
    http://www.bartleby.com/65/ki/Kingsley.html

  And don't miss the connection to Poem #255


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From: <mgtownsend@>

Dear Martin,

I have been enjoying minstrels for a couple of years and love the range of your 
selections. But I think I enjoy your commentaries almost as much as the poetry. This 
one re "A Farewell" is particularly disarming in its directness. And you are right. 
Thank you for this lovely service which brightens my day in a time when days need 
all the light that can be found.

Martin Townsend
Cincinnati, OH