Love Without Hope Comments

Love without hope, as when the young bird-catcher Swept off his tall hat to the Squire's own daughter, So let the imprisoned larks escape and fly Singing about her head, as she rode by.

I saw this poem 35 years ago, written up on the chalkboard of a school in which I was teaching English lit. It has haunted my imagination ever since despite not knowing its authorship until today. With great economy, it establishes a vivid roadside scene which one can dress in the imagination with all the detail, and even character positioning, of an incident in a colour film screenplay. That it can also evoke all the injustice of social-class and manmade barriers to fulfillment as well as the hopelessness of unattainable, unrequited love, is truly remarkable.

Oh my! What an image!