When Edith Sitwell sat down to write a poem, damn the torpedoes, she was going to make it a POEM. Throughout her career, really, but especially in the early stages. Of course she performed her verse as well, and it has that theatrical aura. This is "I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside."
When
Don
Pasquito arrived at the seaside
Where the donkey's hide tide brayed, he
Saw the banditto Jo in a black cape
Whose slack shape waved like the sea—
Thetis wrote a treatise noting wheat is silver like the sea; the lovely cheat is sweet as foam; Erotis notices that she
Will
Steal
The
Wheat-king's luggage, like Babel
Before the League of Nations grew—
So Jo put the luggage and the label
In the pocket of Flo the Kangaroo
Through trees like rich hotels that bode
Of dreamless ease fled she,
Carrying the load and goading the road
Through the marine scene to the sea.
'Don Pasquito, the road is eloping
With your luggage, though heavy and large;
You must follow and leave your moping
Bride to my guidance and charge!’
When
Don
Pasquito returned from the road's end,
Where vanilla-colored ladies ride
From Sevilla, his mantilla'd bride and young friend
Were forgetting their mentor and guide.
For the lady and her friend from Le Touquet
In the very shady trees upon the sand
Were plucking a white satin bouquet
Of foam, while the sand's brassy band
Blared in the wind Don Pasquito
Hid where the leaves drip with sweet . . .
But a word stung him like a mosquito . . .
For what they hear, they repeat!
Flo the Kangaroo? Seems like a very kiddie-lit touch to us, and maybe to readers back then as well. But the crucial thing is that it helps to keep the reader just a little bit off-balance.
2 comments:
It's good that one of her readings was captured on film. Dame Edith was in her 70s in this video, a few years before she died, but still in excellent form. It would have been fascinating to have witnessed one of her performances with musical accompaniment when she was in her prime. At the first public performance of 'Facade' Dame Sitwell recited the poems she'd chosen for the evening through a megaphone poked through a decorative screen while her creative partner, Walton, conducted a six piece orchestra. Evelyn Waugh, Virginia Woolf and Noël Coward were in the audience (Noël Coward left in a huff during the performance).
I liked the line: 'the road is eloping
With your luggage'
It was the Tango Pasodoble that was played for 'I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside'.
Not many people write about Dame Edith in their blog posts these days. Trust you to be the one doing so.
I've seen a little of Dame Edith reciting on film, along with an interview being conducted with her. Apparently she had befriended Marilyn Monroe, which has to be good for a one act play at the very least. Yeah, it's too bad no one thought to film her while she was performing Façade. There have been recordings of the poems paired with Walton's music, but she was the OG. I wonder what set Noel Coward off. Although I wouldn't be surprised if he were just a volatile personality.
The luggage line is great. Her abstract poetry approach--sound first--might have helped her find it, although the line is far from meaningless.
Genius.com actually has the lyrics for Tango Pasodoble up, although they don't credit Sitwell. Tsk tsk.
I keep hearing that blogging is a dead medium. Maybe it is and maybe it isn't. Either way, as long as I"m doing it I'm doing it my way.
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