My Beautiful Lady. Nelly Dale

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Pages: 71

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About this book

Private sorrow and the memory of love give Thomas Woolner's verse its emotional focus. The opening of My Beautiful Lady considers grief that remains hidden beneath ordinary work, conversation and apparent cheerfulness. It asks for care in judging other people, whose outward manner may conceal lasting pain. Natural images, from spring birdsong to storms at sea, help express the distance between the visible world and an inward burden.

Later passages follow a speaker mourning his beloved and wondering whether her spirit can answer him. Books, pictures, candlelight and a night beside her tomb become the surroundings for his reflections on memory, faith and loneliness. Henry Morley's introduction connects Woolner's poetry with duty and purposeful effort, and also describes his work as a sculptor. Readers interested in reflective verse will find sustained attention to how affection and loss shape a person's inner life.