Frances Cornford?

[Isagel]

Anyone familiar with this poet? I´ve never heard of her before . A friend just sent me this poem, and now I long for more. I guess I could google her name - but it´s more fun to discuss here. And that way I get to share this poem :

To a Fat Lady Seen From the Train

O why do you walk through the fields in gloves,
Missing so much and so much?
O fat white woman whom nobody loves,
Why do you walk through the fields in gloves,
When the grass is soft as the breast of doves
And shivering sweet to the touch?
O why do you walk through the fields in gloves,
Missing so much and so much?

-- Frances Cornford

[Jay]

O fat white woman whom nobody loves
*growls... sulks afterwards* so not going to read anymore of her poems ;):p

[mono]

*growls... sulks afterwards* so not going to read anymore of her poems ;):p

Worry not, Jay; I have heard worse. I think that small part of the poem merely scoffs our petty emphasis on body image and appearance.

[Jay]

It's the 'whom nobody loves' part associated with the emphasis on body image and appereance that got me... all grrr. Don't fat people deserve to live or what? (rhetorical question, don't bother replying... tend to make a lot of threads go OT recently)

[Sindhu]

Chesterton was moved to reply on the woman's behalf:

Why do you rush through the fields in trains,
Guessing so much and so much.
Why do you flash through the flowery meads,
Fat-head poet that nobody reads;
And why do you know such a frightful lot
About people in gloves and such?
-- Chesterton, 'The Fat White Woman Speaks'
(c. 1933); an answer to Frances Cornford.

and Housman skewered the poem rather neatly:

O why do you walk through the fields in boots,
Missing so much and so much?
O fat white woman whom nobody shoots,
Why do you walk through the fields in boots,
When the grass is soft as the breast of coots
And shivering-sweet to the touch?