#26 – Ophelia of the Bathtub

Highgate Cemetery is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries. It is located in the London Borough of Camden, and was originally consecrated in 1839. One of its more famous residents is Elizabeth Siddal, artist, artist’s model and poet. In 1851, Siddal modelled for John Everett Millais’  famous painting, Ophelia, laying in a freezing bathtub to emulate the drowning of Shakespeare’s ill-fated heroine. 

Ophelia of the Bathtub

I want you to imagine how if felt

to hold that blighted posy in your hand.

You found the swollen river, and you knelt

Then – breathing deep – abandoned life on land. 

The creeping cold might chill unwitting flesh

and turn your pretty blush to icy white

but Art is worth the sacrifice and fresh

aesthetic flair’s emboldened by the sight

of veils afloat. The dainty wedding lace,

all soaking wet and rippled on the skin;

the deluged comprehension in the face.

The hope of final rescue, wearing thin. 

Now lay, palms raised, and lips a shade apart,

and think about the maiden’s broken heart. 

LM 

Listen to the poem 

Ophelia by John Everett Millais

#22- The Silent Woman

Brompton Cemetery is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries. It is located in the Royal London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and was originally consecrated in 1840. One of its more famous residents is Fanny Brawne, the fiancée and muse to English Romantic poet John Keats. When word got out about their relationship, sometime after Keats’ death, the press vilified Fanny Brawne for being unworthy of the affection of such a great literary hero. Plus ça change, amirite? 

The Silent Woman 

I am the silent woman - letters lost -

and so they choose to reconstruct me whole

from his words only - oh! but at what cost?

As misinterpretation takes its toll. 

I wish to be a book myself, intact,

and not a hasty postscript on a page.

Instead my name is slandered and attacked,

and I am now a conduit for rage. 

Society abhors a woman’s worth

and reconsiders only when she’s dead;

I hear their words reverberate through earth,

not dampening the roaring lies they spread. 

I am the poet’s widow, come what may,

my reputation built from mis-fired clay.

LM

Listen to this poem

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

 

 

#18 – How to be dead

West Norwood Cemetery is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries. It is located in the London Borough of Lambeth and was originally consecrated in 1837. One of its more famous residents is Mrs Isabella Beeton, whose book ‘Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management’ was a seminal instructional text for middle class housewives in the mid-nineteenth century.

How to be dead 

It takes some getting used to. There’s a knack

to coping with the stillness in your chest. 

The strangeness of the quiet and the lack 

of breath and mood and motion, when at rest. 

It’s not a state to seek before your time -

Lord only knows, we need your kind on earth -

but sure as taxes tax, and poets rhyme, 

your end will come, as certain as your birth. 

But nothingness is tough to contemplate;  

the mixture of relief and doubt and dread. 

Take comfort in your universal fate:

coz hierarchies don’t concern the dead.

It takes some getting used to. There’s a knack

to coping with the quiet and the lack.

LM

Listen to the poem here

Photo credit: Wikipedia

#14 - Back to Black

Abney Park Cemetery is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries. It is located in the London Borough of Hackney and was originally consecrated in 1840. In 2007, Amy Winehouse filmed the music video for Back to Black in Abney Park Cemetery. 

Back to Black  

When royalty first came to Abney Park, 

the monuments all craned to take a look,

the bushes combed their leaves and smoothed their bark,

and grasses, in excitement, reeled and shook. 

The spirits of the cemetery stirred

as soulful melodies were sung aloud,

and though they couldn’t make out every word

the filming drew them close, this ghostly crowd. 

A London graveyard is a sombre place,

and phantoms, left behind, are prone to ache,

but Amy was each spectre’s saving grace,

and so, the loveless gathered in her wake. 

It was as though she’d been this way before, 

where each soul dies a hundred times and more.

LM

Listen to the poem here

Photo credit - wikipedia

#10 - The Parakeets of Nunhead Cemetery

Nunhead Cemetery is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries. It is located in the London Borough of Southwark and was originally consecrated in 1840. Like many places in London, and other cities in the UK, Nunhead cemetery is home to a number of non-native species, including the beautiful, raucous ring-necked parakeet.

The Parakeets of Nunhead Cemetery 

All souls, in granite slumber, stir to life,

surprised by sudden throaty, screeching calls.

A ring-necked parakeet has brought his wife

to nest within the mausoleum’s walls. 

These feathered captives slipped their iron cage

escaping from a cramped menagerie, 

and, courting consternation and outrage,  

they made their home in Nunhead’s ancient trees.

When London cemeteries are so sad

and local birds so dull and seldom-seen,

in deep November, can it be so bad 

if through the granite grey, there flashes green? 

A gloomy graveyard, now alive with squawks; 

the perfect way to brighten winter walks. 

LM 

Listen to the poem here

Photo credit: unsplash.com

#6 - A Balancing Act

Kensal Green Cemetery is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries. It is located in the Royal London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, and was originally consecrated in 1833. One of its many famous residents is the Victorian Tightrope Walker, Charles Blondin. 

A Balancing Act 

A man can rest his weight upon a wire

above a town or raging waterfall

but can he master all his base desires

through sheer audacity and foolish gall? 

Sometimes I am the tightness in the rope,

sometimes I am the yawning black abyss;

I tread the air to struggle and to cope

with all that I am not, and all I miss.

I’ll carry you, a pilgrim, on my back,

and see you safely to the other side.

We’ll navigate the narrowest of tracks:

twelve thousand inches long, three inches wide. 

I bless the boys below who tied the knots; 

this clichéd metaphor is all I’ve got.

LM 

Listen to the Poem Here 

Photo credit: Wikipedia

 

 

#2 - The Ghost of Jamrach’s Tiger

Tower Hamlets Cemetery is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries. It is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and was originally consecrated in 1841. One of the cemetery’s more famous ‘residents’ is Charles Jamrach, a Victorian menagerie keeper and exotic animal exporter. In 1857, one of Jamrach’s Bengal tigers escaped his menagerie and stalked through London, almost killing a nine-year-old boy. 

The Ghost of Jamrach’s Tiger 

Around the stones, there lurks a giant shade,

transparent stripes emblazoned on his hide.

With ghostly teeth and paws as big as spades,

he relishes eternity outside. 

He spent his life, a shadow in a cage,

until he slipped his chains and ran amok.

He sought to make the most of his rampage,

and almost mauled a boy down by the dock. 

In death, he’s finally free from Jamrach’s zoo

and, following those instincts, long supressed,

he stalks the graves at night, as you would too

if you had been so baselessly oppressed. 

As Bow bells toll their spectral midnight chime,

I hear an echo growling out of time. 

LM 

Listen to the poem here

Bengal tiger (courtesy of unsplash.com)