[Elle Bruno]

Thank you for sharing this Mary. I hadn't read it before.

I'm going to take a couple of the previous interpretations one step further and speculate that this is not just meant as a longing for death but the actual passing into death. She recalls her previous imaginings of death (with her past fears that the end might be 'unkind' -an angry or judgmental God) but she now see how easy, how smooth, how simple this trip is. It is like skating on a river with a friend. I understand Maryann's thoughts that river skating is inherently more dangerous but I think the poet chooses the river because it goes somewhere. Lakes only go in circles.
I love the doubling up of 'on, on' and 'fast, fast' -one can feel the one-two of each foot shoving off, picking up momentum.
The last line is killer.
Yes, quite Emily-like. Odd and moving.

Please, for the FV crowd, can someone explain the metrics here?
Thanks, Dee

[Roger Slater]

I agree with the "weariness of life" interpretation. I didn't know this poem before, but I always thought that the best thing in the Joni Mitchell songbook was the refrain:

I wish I had a river
I could skate away on

This is sung to a lovely melody that many singers have rendered very beautifully.

In the Joni Mitchell song, it is clearly an act of weariness, regret, and a desire to escape what's bothering her (tritely, "I made my baby cry"). It's maybe the only well-known sad Christmas song, too.

I wonder if Joni knew about the Mew poem?

[Jerry Glenn Hartwig]

Here's how I would scan this, Dee. I find the opening line metrically intriguing, because the first two words are heavily stressed an I find myself breaking smile into two syllables, which I fail to do on the second smile in the same line. Here's a simple stressed/unstressed scan in beats:


SMI - le, DEATH, see i SMILE as i COME to YOU
STRAIGHT from the ROAD and the MOOR that i LEAVE beHIND,

............NOthing on EARTH to ME was LIKE this WIND-blown SPACE,

.......NOthing was LIKE the ROAD, but AT the END there WAS a VIsion OR a FACE

......And the EYES were not ALways KIND.

......SMI-le, DEATH, as you FASten the BLADES to my FEET for ME,

ON, | | ON let us SKATE past the SLEEPing WILlows DUSTed with SNOW;

FAST, | | FAST down the FROzen STREAM, with the MOORr and the ROAD and the VIsion beHIND,

......(SHOW me your FACE, why the EYES are KIND!)

And WE will not SPEAK of LIFE or beLIEVE in IT or reMEMmber it AS we GO.

An effective combination of iambic and anapestic lines in a hetmet structure.



[This message has been edited by Jerry Glenn Hartwig (edited December 21, 2007).]

[Jerry Glenn Hartwig]

I pick up on this as a metaphor for dying, with a suggestion (probably colored by my knowledge of Mew) of suicide (the face that wasn't always kind / the willingness or eagerness to skate down the river/ smiling as she comes toward Death).

Leaving the moor and the road for a place that's cold and wind-blown, yet beautiful; and in the closing lines to find - above Death's smile (a skull's smile)- the eyes are actually kind, therefor dying's a kindness that offers forgetfulness of life's unkindness.

Interesting play on the River Lethe, where Death is not a ferryman, yet assists the journey - not with a boat - but skates; still, offering the same benefits. No Eleysian Fields, but a frozen river in a lavely setting, and Death becomes a companion.

Not generally a style I prefer, but I find I'm quite taken with this one.

Thanks, Mary, for posting it.



[This message has been edited by Jerry Glenn Hartwig (edited December 21, 2007).]

[David Anthony]

I think it's a very fine poem. My interpretation is much the same as Tim's.
I'd never heard of her before, but have now ordered her Collected Poems from Amazon and shall make good my deficiency.
Thanks for posting it, Mary.
Best wishes,
David

[Janet Kenny]

Tim said it so perfectly there's nothing left for me to say. A wonderful poem. Like David I will find out more about her. Thank you Mary for posting this.
Janet

[Tim Murphy]

I met a man named Herve on the banks of the Delaware. He had been a famed drag queen in the Thirties. 98 years old, he took me to his house and showed me his first edition of his favorite poet, Charlotte Mew. He read me a number of poems and we discussed her and Hardy. In its music this poem strikingly reminds me of Hardy's The Voice, which might be archived here from the days when I ran Mastery.

Unlike Jerry, I hear SMILE, DEATH, just as ON, ON and FAST, FAST. I really don't think it can be scanned with our simple system, that in fact you'd have to have recourse to the full range of classical feet. Aaron or Chris could do it. Even so, you'd just do violence to magic. She breaks our rules on stringing together unstressed syllables, which trip along like grace notes, and it is the accents we must pay attention to. It is heterometrical obviously, but mainly it is hypnotic.

[Mark Allinson]

Here is my accentual scan:

SMILE, DEATH, see I SMILE as I COME to YOU
STRAIGHT from the ROAD and the MOOR that I LEAVE beHIND,
NOTHing on EARTH to ME was LIKE this WIND-blown SPACE,
NOTHing was LIKE the ROAD, but at the END there was a VISion or a FACE
And the EYES were not ALways KIND.
SMILE, DEATH, as you FASTen the BLADES to my FEET for me,
ON, ON, let us SKATE past the SLEEPing WILLows DUSTed with SNOW;
FAST, FAST down the FROzen STREAM, with the MOOR and the ROAD and the VISion beHIND,
(SHOW me your FACE, why the EYES are KIND!)
And WE will not SPEAK of LIFE or beLIEVE in it or reMEMber it as we GO.

[Janet Kenny]

My attempts at a scan:
:
SMILE, DEATH, SEE i SMILE as i COME to YOU

STRAIGHT from the ROAD and the MOOR that i LEAVE beHIND,

............NOthing on EARTH to ME was LIKE THIS WIND-BLOWN SPACE,

.......NOthing was LIKE the ROAD, but at the END there was a VIsion or a FACE

......and the EYES were NOT ALways KIND.BANNED POST

......SMILE, DEATH, as you FASten the BLADES to my FEET for me,

ON, ON let us SKATE past the SLEEping WILlows DUSted with SNOW;

FAST, FAST down the FROzen STREAM, with the MOOR and the ROAD and the VIsion beHIND,

......(SHOW me your FACE, WHY the EYES are KIND!)

and we will NOT SPEAK of LIFE or beLIEVE in it or reMEMber it AS we GO.


- Charlotte Mew

I could change my mind about the last line — I actually hear it as a flat lost voice that is more or less even.
Janet

[Mary Meriam]

Thanks for all these comments! Some disjointed thoughts:

I hesitated to scan Smile, Death, and now I know why - it's beyond my level.

David, when you get the Collected, please let me know if I did the spacing right on these poems?

That Herve story is interesting. I can imagine Herve and Charlotte had much in common. Surrounded by unkind faces, wishing for a smile or kind eyes.

I'd like to know if "come" had the same connotation for Charlotte that it has for us. Somehow I doubt it.

Perhaps the personification of death is like the personification of absence, as in this poem by Mew. I still don't think Smile, Death is a love poem or about weariness. I think her personification of death/absence is a longing for life and understanding.

Absence

Sometimes I know the way
......You walk, up over the bay;
It is a wind from the far sea
That blows the fragrance of your hair to me.

Or in this garden when the breeze
......Touches my trees
To stir their dreaming shadows on the grass
......I see you pass.

In sheltered beds, the heart of every rose
......Serenely sleeps to-night. As shut as those
Your guarded heart; as safe as they from the beat, beat
Of hooves that tread dropped roses in the street.

......Turn never again
......On these eyes blind with a wild rain
Your eyes; they were stars to me.--
......There are things stars may not see.

But call, call, and though Christ stands
......Still with scarred hands
Over my mouth, I must answer. So
I will come--He shall let me go!




[This message has been edited by Mary Meriam (edited December 22, 2007).]