[John Whitworth]

My publisher wshes to publish this poem in a magazine. She asks me where it was published last. Buggered if I know but it obviously was or she wouldn't have seen it. It begins

'Moon on the water and a sleeping swan'

and ends

'Whoever loved who loved not at first sight'

Does any Spherean recognise it? Thanks in advance.

[Ann Drysdale]

Well, the last line, with a that where the who is, is Kit Marlowe's, though I am assuming that you knew that when you nicked it.

Could it have been a comp that required that line as an ending?

[Michael F]

I can't help you on your question, John.

But as to the Marlowe poem, it's an interesting case of a poem that is true, while the last line is patently false! (Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter comes to mind as a masterful depiction of the opposite ... it's a tremendous novel that I need to read again.)

[John Whitworth]

You can argue that Marlowe's line is true either because

1.If you don't love at first sight then that isn't really love

2. You love only once (as Housman and his Moses) and any subsequent love is but a pale copy

3. You may think you don't love at first sight but actually, as a deep level, you really do.

By the way, is Marlowe's line itself pinched from some Greek or Roman?

[Roger Slater]

I'm unclear where your publisher got these lines. If she wants to publish the poem, I assume that she has the entire poem and you can offer us more than just two lines? That would be helpful to set us a-Googling on your behalf. But if she just has these lines in her memory and nothing more, perhaps she is mistaken given that one of the lines isn't really yours and you yourself don't recall the other.

[Michael F]

Post deleted. I apologize for the unnecessary tangent!

[Roger Slater]

Or perhaps you do not really see a person until you love them?

[Gail White]

Originally Posted by Michael Ferris

I can't help you on your question, John.

But as to the Marlowe poem, it's an interesting case of a poem that is true, while the last line is patently false! (Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter comes to mind as a masterful depiction of the opposite ... it's a tremendous novel that I need to read again.)

Michael, I'm delighted to meet another Kristin fan.

[John Whitworth]

Moonshine was published by the late Paul Stevebs in one of his on line magazines, That's where Karen saw it. She has published it in her own online magazine at https://orchardspoetry.com. It's a good issue. I recommend it.