Friday 13 July 2012

Accepting a gap


Vaughan Williams married for the second time in 1953. There was a 40 year age gap between he and Ursula. They loved each other deeply and traveled the world together. A poet, one day, when he was reaching his mid-eighties - she sat watching him and wrote this:

Tired

Sleep, and I'll be as still as another sleeper
holding you in my arms, glad that you lie
so near at last.
This sheltering midnight is our meeting place,
no passion or despiar or hope divide
me from your side.
I shall remember firelight on your sleeping face,
I shall remember shadows growing deeper
as the fire fell to ashes and the minutes passed.

The couple set the poem to a piece of music called The Last Four Songs. He died in 1958. She lived until 2007. She never re-married and always loved her husband.

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