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Hallmark

Canada's 150 Year Anniversary

What Inspires the Poetry?


What inspired Emily Isaacson's poem "The Apothecary's Daughter" was her favourite clothing line Armstreet.

To visit them: https://armstreet.com


 

The Apothecary Sonnets

The Apothecary's Daughter sonnets by Emily Isaacson.


Do not despise thou love, nor rue its share,

the shelter it provides is providence,

the elegance of home is free from cares,

and thine bent head in prayer is evidence.

I have many flowers in my garden,

each smells so sweetly of the summer’s air,

envelopes of color, secret wardens,

for all the trust that heav’n keeps guarded there.

If ever I should give my heart to one,

I would find her ’neath an arbour waiting;

my intimations second to her none,

there’d be one song in my mouth abating:

I would give thee my youth’s flattery now

that I may not prove false upon thy vow.


Last was I to read your cream folded note,

when I was still quite young, I would not laugh

at your sincerity, and my wood staff.

My reputation was my ivory throat.

I would take you at your word, upon sea

I float: saline is my buffer, salt pure

that reaches deep into my wounds, censured

as crystalline mine salt, deep in the green,

we move, we float, licensed liquidity.

And now the years have almost passed me by,

I remember you, the boy that once kythed

in books and music, gardens’ flow’r to me.

Do not let me forget the passing age,

that once held me, a player, on the stage.

         --Emily Isaacson


 

Postmodernism and Poetry

 
Isaacson's use of postmodern devices such as pastiche demonstrate her use of eclecticism in art. It allows her to imitate while noting the work of other writers, such as Edna St. Vincent Millay. She discards the modern poet and returns to classical form; she speaks of figs growing from briers, and has familiar titles to the genius of Millay in the early 1920’s. She also writes rhyming sonnets, as Millay did. In Hallmark, her use of ballad form in “Last Words From A Weaver’s Basket” is a timely returning to Millay’s era and Millay’s soft-spoken “The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver”.
 
The Wild Lily Institute 2018
 

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