Turning the Page
The Happy Prince
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In the children’s record of the Happy Prince,
before each gold flake is peeled from the Prince’s body,
the voice orders, Turn the Page, Turn the Page,
supposing that children do not know when to turn,
and may live at one line for many years,
sliding and bouncing boisterously along the words,
breaking the closed letters for a warm place to sleep.
Turn the Page, Turn the Page.
--Janet Frame
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In the children’s record of the Happy Prince,
before each gold flake is peeled from the Prince’s body,
the voice orders, Turn the Page, Turn the Page,
supposing that children do not know when to turn,
and may live at one line for many years,
sliding and bouncing boisterously along the words,
breaking the closed letters for a warm place to sleep.
Turn the Page, Turn the Page.
By the time the Happy Prince has lost his eyes,
and his melted heart is given to the poor,
and his body taken from the market-place and burned,
there is no need to order, Turn the Page,
for the children have grown up, and know when to turn,
and knowing when, will never again know where.
--Janet Frame
posted by Cheshire Cat at 1:53 PM
9 Comments:
nice to see you back with this one.
and what an apt name the lady has. do you think she kept thinking of it while reading, wondering how 'frame' might sound if it wasn't a name and what the possibilities might be?
Hey Space. It's interesting you ask about the name, because in her work names are often so much more than labels... I read somewhere that she changed her surname at some point, but continued to use "Frame" for her books.
Her work is just too dark for me, but I do covet "Mona Minim and the Smell of the Sun".
So how does it feel to turn the page Professor Cat?
Crp, good catch, I hadn't thought of it that way. Life is one thing for me, reading another, and of the two I generally prefer reading...
seems the blog has been abandoned...
anyway, I saw Jane Campion's film adaptation of her autobiograhies An Angel at my table a couple of months back...quite good specially the parts about her childhood and adolescence. I've meaning to pick up one of her books for some time... this poem is also great.
Not completely abandoned, there are people who visit from time to time... Even me.
You might like Frame, very dark writer, just your type :)
I got yellow flowers in antipodean room. first twenty pages didn't make a lot of sense but i am continuing...
you're certainly tougher than I am! I think I basically gave up before that, and just skimmed through the rest. There are snatches of lovely writing, but of course things never quite add up.
The autobiography is a better place to start, perhaps?
yeah the autobiography should be good...as i said I was quite impressed by the film though the section which dealt with her grown up/writer persona was a little disappointing but only because the initial sections dealing with her childhood were so good.
I always thought Aussies and NZers were healthy people... all that psych stuff happens only to russians and central european writers.
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