Chantefleurie, La Poupée De Temps: Ein Märchen Comments

Chantefleurie is Esmeralda's mother in The Hunchback of Notre Dame by the way~ (gypsy-like movements was the hint)

BTW I have absolutely no idea about the origin of the doll-woman's name! I've tried to break the name into parts - no luck. I tried to think of other characters in tales with polysyllabic names - no luck. But I have not used Google! I'm following the Rules of the Game.

Hi Nika I keep coming back to this poem - It speaks to me! On this latest reading I became aware of some aspects of Father Time I had not seen clearly. For example, the speaker shows he DOES FEEL C.'s pain and causing her death is actually granting her death - it's a gift of sorts. Also, there is animosity between Mother Nature and Father Time which provokes at least part of his harshness toward C. But my first and last evaluation sees C. as MORE SINNED AGAINST THAN SINNING (Shakespeare's very precise distinction) . She's a wonder!

Hi Nika This poem has been haunting me for the past day and night, so I had to return to it. I think I found it more compelling on my return encounter. The image of LONELIER AND LOVELIER which runs through it like a bass note is especially sad. Whatever private passion made Father Time mis-use Chantelfleurie so vilely you appropriately shroud in mystery - The truth would only wound us, because it could be us he'd experiment on next. There is something so poignant about the doll's silent suffering and when she collapses into porcelain dust, I didn't know whether I should be happy her ordeal was over or mourn her passing - perhaps a confusion of both responses... This imaginative poem will persist in my memory. It has its own place there.

Nika, this is such a wonderful poem! I've already added to my List of Favorites so I can come back to it. It's so charming but also unassuming (just like the doll's behavior) , it teaches a moral lesson but without preaching, the ending is very sad but I don't feel sad, it's the doll who had to confront sadness - I feel ENLIGHTENED by your moral tale, in two senses: 1) I've been taught and learned a crucial lesson about the danger of living in dreams of life rather than life itself,2) I feel a burden has been lifted from me because I now KNOW the right way to live! !