Here is Yorkshire Pudding's tribute to Yorkshire Folk, composed to the tune of the sea-shanty "Cape Cod Girls."
When I was eight or nine years old, I read The Secret Garden for the first time. I tried to write poetry in the Yorkshire dialect. I still cringe when I think of the poem about Starlight, the last unicorn, "Ridin' 'pon th' windy moor." At least I didn't try to talk like Dickon, the Yorkshire lad whom Mary Lennox befriends.
Yes, I used to like unicorns. And vampires. Knock it off, now.
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11 comments:
I LOVED unicorns.
I think I vaguely remember a similarly apostrophe- sad poem but mine was about true love or some such.
Lately, the Lone Star Baby has been sitting astride an old stuffed unicorn of her sister's saying "I ride unicorn!" a lot. No, it's not that big.
Have you ever seen the modern film version of "The Secret Garden"? To use an Americanism, it sucks! The barren moors are just next door to a fertile, luxuriant garden and that is only one issue I have with a film that doesn't really convey the sense of mystery and lost promise that that garden represented in the novel. Plus some of the acting is so wooden. You must have been a very advanced eight year old and if I might say extremely discerning to select the Yorkshire dialect for experimentation.
"Ee tha's a reeght un Alkelda. Get thissen up them stairs me old lass an ah'll be reeght up once ah've put cat oot!"
LSM: LSB has the right idea! Oh yes, true love. Was it a joyful or mournful poem?
YP: Other than snippets of "Once Upon a Classic" when I was wee, (the Masterpiece Theatre for kids), I have never seen any Secret Garden adaptations. I am glad for it! Even though Mary Lennox's and my childhoods were quite different, I still identified with her. In second grade, I upturned all of the sand in my sandbox and filled it with dirt so I could have a little spot of earth for my own. Never mind that I was in the wild woods of West Virginia, with plenty of dirt (and clay) to be had.
I don't remember it well, but it was probably WISTFUL, if I remember myself correctly(:
I actually have enjoyed all the Secret Garden movies I've seen, though certainly not as much as the book.
Thanks for the links! I remember "Secret Garden" from when I was a kid. WOW, talk about memories!
Akelda, you're the BEST.
I think The Secret Garden is one of the greatest children's books ever written. Her characters and situations were so complex for a children's book! (The description of the cholera epidemic is wonderful and harrowing.) And any adult who rereads it is likely to be struck by the realization that this triangle between Mary, her aristrocratic cousin Colin, and the working class Dickon, is going to get VERY complicated in another few years. Maybe that's why it has inspired at least one adult sequel.
Lady K: So, you don't hold my childhood fascination with unicorns against me?! xox
The Moy: Do I want to read the adult sequel to The Secret Garden? I loved the book, and the one thing that dismayed me was toward the end, when in the last chapter, the story became all about "Master Colin." If Mary had to choose between Colin and Dickeon for a romantic partner, my vote would be for Dickeon. Why? Because, as Eddie Izzard said,
"...It's a bad idea when cousins marry! Bottom of the gene pool, you know....First rule of genetics: spread the genes apart! But the royals are just obsessed with, "Are you a royal family? Are you a royal member? Well, then you can marry me ‘cause you're same gene pool, and our IQs will go down the toilet.”
Ahem. I got carried away for a moment. At any rate, thank you for visiting my blog.
Alkelda, the honest initial answer to your question is -- I don't know. I didn't read it, just saw it in passing, but was turned off by the blurb. It sounded too much like a romantic novel. I should also note, however, that there was a filmed version of THE SECRET GARDEN which added a coda that jumped ahead about ten years. Dickeon dies in WWI and Mary, bereft, ends up marrying Colin (played by Colin Firth.)
As for cousins marrying cousins -- waaaaaal, as a gal from the Amercian south, I've seen it happen with no visible ill effects. The problem is when you do it for several generations, as has happened in some of our NC and Tennessee mountain communities (and in your Royal family. Does the world REALLY need another chinless white man with big ears?)
Yes, I'd root for Dickon, though I suspect as a couple he and Mary would face a rocky path, given their differences in background.
The Moy: Cousins marrying cousins happens quite a bit in the Mennonite communities, too. I think I've mentioned elsewhere (but will gladly tell it again) that in my last-ditch attempt to get together with a Mennonite (and thereby solidify my roots, etc.), I found out that (1)we were 5th cousins (2)his great-uncle jilted my great-aunt in Kansas.
I didn't mind the 5th cousins part as much as the jilting of my great-aunt. Hah!
Dickon was great and all, but obviously doomed. Think Simon in The Lord of The Flies. There is just no future with anyone that perfect...the gods have to punish them or something.
I think a childhood love of unicorns denotes a personality full of creativity and wonderment. :)
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