Monday, April 14, 2014



Um poema que me traz lágrimas aos olhos (e que não vem nesta antologia):

Devonshire Street W.1 by John Betjeman
The heavy mahogany door with its wrought-iron screen
Shuts. And the sound is rich, sympathetic, discreet.
The sun still shines on this eighteenth-century scene
With Edwardian faience adornment -- Devonshire Street.

No hope. And the X-ray photographs under his arm
Confirm the message. His wife stands timidly by.
The opposite brick-built house looks lofty and calm
Its chimneys steady against the mackerel sky.

No hope. And the iron knob of this palisade
So cold to the touch, is luckier now than he
"Oh merciless, hurrying Londoners! Why was I made
For the long and painful deathbed coming to me?"

She puts her fingers in his, as, loving and silly
At long-past Kensington dances she used to do
"It's cheaper to take the tube to Piccadilly
And then we can catch a nineteen or twenty-two".

8 comments:

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  2. Se acha humor neste poema, Patrício Branco, imagino-o às gargalhadas pelos nossos cemitérios...

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  5. Fazer humor quando alguém recebe um diagnóstico de cancro incurável não me parece muito apropriado, mas o Patrício Branco lá sabe...

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  7. Está bem, quem recebe um diagnóstico de cancro pode fazer humor; quem o acompanha (é o caso da pobre mulher do poema de Betjeman) não faz humor coisa nenhuma, está a repetir coisas banais e familiares, as mudanças dos metros, as carreiras dos autocarros, para neutralizar o drama que está a viver.

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  8. Betjeman became Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom in 1972, the first Knight Bachelor to be appointed (the only other, Sir William Davenant, had been knighted after his appointment). This role, combined with his popularity as a television performer, ensured that his poetry reached an audience enormous by the standards of the time. Similarly to Tennyson, he appealed to a wide public and managed to voice the thoughts and aspirations of many ordinary people while retaining the respect of many of his fellow poets. This is partly because of the apparently simple traditional metrical structures and rhymes he uses.

    (Poetry Archive, 1967)

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