Family Connections and 2 more poems
Posted by Marie-Bernadette on June 24, 1998 at 15:00:41:
In response to Fascinating - any more?, written by Linden on June 24, 1998 at 05:56:29
I am not related to Bosie except by marriage and that is quite a stretch. My Great-grandmother's maiden name was Custance, a name, originally de Coustance, which goes back to the 1100's to the court of William the Conqueror. My branch of the fam is descended from a Robert Custance who lived in the 1500's. One of his brothers was Olive Custance's ancestor, so her branch of the family are cousins to ours although it was a long time ago and our families are now distant cousins.
Olive married Lord Alfred Douglas after the scandal with Wilde. She had a chance to marry another man, who made £30,000 a year, but chose Bosie instead, much to her father's dismay. Her father was Col. Frederick Hambleton Custance of the Grenadier Gaurds. His father was Sir Hambleton Francis Custance KCB who was also sheriff of Norfolk. Olive's mother was Eleanor Constance Jolliffe. Olive had only one child with Bosie, a son named Raymond. He suffered from mental illness, was institutionalised for many years and died in his twenties.
Here are a couple more of Olive's shorter poems.
AN IMPRESSION
Sky like smoked mother-o'-pearl,
Dim background for bare trees
That lift against it stained twig traceries:
Smoke wreaths that curl
Upward from carved stone chimneys silently -
Twilight time....nigh!
Westward, wide scarlet bars
Belting day's silvery waist -
And Eastward sable clouds interlaced...
So - night lifts nearer, luminous with stars...
THE GIRL IN THE GLASS
Girl in the glass! you smile and yet
Your eyes are full of a vague regret;
For dreams are lovely, and life is sad,
And when you were a child what dreams you had!
Now, over your soul life's shadows pass,
Girl in the glass.
Girl in the glass, an April day
Looks not more tearful, looks not more gay
Than your rose-flushed face with the wistful mouth.
For your soul seeks Love as a swallow flies south,
So, into your eyes Love's sorrow pass,
Girl in the glass.
- Great stuff - thanks (nfm) Linden 21:57:02 6/29/98
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