This is to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Beatrix Potter.









Potterland

Once upon a time a young girl
Was born into a stifling world:
Corsets and rules, chaperones
And rules, manners and rules.
The girl's name was Beatrix Potter
And she had a gift for drawing,
But she could only draw dead objects:
Cut fungi, pulled weeds, taxidermal things.

Then one day she found the Lake District,
Pulled there by an Iron Horse, and the
Horse showed her that she was many creatures
Which had no inane inhibitions or ridiculous rules.

And from that day on Beatrix became really alive and shifted her shape.

She became a frog, a rabbit, a mouse, a squirrel, a duck, a cat and a hedgehog, among other things.

She told stories about herself in these various forms, stories of rule-breaking, stories about self-expression. A recurrent theme was an animal losing its human clothes, the abandoning of anthropomorphic ambition.

Once upon a time a young girl
Was born into her own world...











Poetry by Christopher Fernie The PoetBay support member heart!
Read 711 times
Written on 2016-07-29 at 21:51

dott Save as a bookmark (requires login)
dott Write a comment (requires login)
dott Send as email (requires login)
dott Print text


Elle The PoetBay support member heart!
Ive always wanted to visit the Lake District, her stories captivated me as a child, I read them to my sons, timeless

Elle x
2016-07-29