Hi Ian
I re-read parts of it, the parts I remembered crying over in class. I felt like I was the only one reacting like this at the time. Another one was “The Forsaken Merman” by Matthew Arnold: “She sigh’d, she look’d up through the clear green sea;. She said: “I must go, to my kinsfolk pray, In the little grey church on the shore to-day. ‘T will be Easter-time …” So sad! You were always wise for your age, by the sound of things. You feel so much better after a good cry, as long as no-one is laughing at you while you do it! Big kids don’t cry etc etc…

As a teenager I revelled in sad (poignant) stories, particularly sad poetry. Probably I craved the pathos as I explored and exploited my raging hormones and tried to understand the cycle of birth, life and death (two of my grandparents died when I was in my ‘tweens and early teens). I read so I’d remember not to be too judgmental. I read for perspective and to be reminded that that even in the face of loss and pain, of doubt and confusion, life does not stop.

I re-read now out of reminiscence and in wonder of the younger me. How intense we were then.

Me too, I’ll re-read it and see if my reactions have changed at all.

Great. Thanks. I’ll get back to you about this.

I will definitely read it again. Was it in Year 9?
Thanks Ian

Read the poem at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/43604

I am about to start from the beginning … soon as I find the tissues.

So glad you liked this, Ian. My voice when I write well seems connected somehow to the child within. Perhaps it was “Sohrab and Rustum” that I’ve been trying to drag up out of the unconscious sea (or swamp!)for a while now. Thanks for reminding me of the title and the author; it was so sad that I must have blotted it out. Does one brother mortally wound the other in battle, and he’s holding him in his arms as the blood flows out and he expires? Or were they just friends? I must look it up again.

Keep up the blogging, I for one enjoy it (even if all at sea technically.).