Isle of Romance
O Isle of Romance, what a fanciful thought,
_Most surely a sensual place—
Capri, Catalina, Tahiti or Crete
_Where ardent, young lovers embrace.
For poets and painters, an Isle of Romance
_Is simply an artistic goal—
A yearning, a dream, an intangible reach,
_A vision arousing the soul.
And, so, that impression, an Isle of Romance,
_That marvelous, shimmering sight,
Means truly the stirrings of artists at work,
_Creating, exposing new light.
Margaret Brinton has lived in San Diego’s inland valley area for over forty years where she taught and tutored. Her poems have recently been published in California Quarterly and Westward Quarterly and The Lyric with upcoming work in the greeting card industry. She has previously been published in the Penwood Review and many other publications.
Hi Margaret, I like how you bridge the gap between a “modern” notion of romance as connected with attraction between the sexes and the more timeless concept of romance as representing adventure and far horizons – particularly the artistic horizon! Thanks for this encouragement to keep moving forward with our creative endeavors 🙂
Margaret, this is a beautiful treat of classical proportions touching especially the artistic souls of painters and poets. I can feel the marvelous heartfelt sentiments touching mine.
Beaming verses to intrigue any artist with wishful visions! Brings to mind the French phrase, “fait a peindre,” meaning “made to paint.” Your “intangible reach,” Margaret, is a more wonderful pair of words describing the distance to this Isle of Romance, combining a stretch of expansive effort with the notion of untouchability after all. And yet as your final stanza defines, the Isle exists in artistic “stirrings.” It’s the process, more than the product, though you’ve stirred quite a swirl with these lines.
To Jeremiah and Roy,
Thank you, gentlemen, for your generous comments!
Thank you, Margaret C.!
I enjoyed your clever and creative response to my poem.
from Margaret B.
Hello Margaret. Glad to read your poem. I felt the first two stanzas were perfect but that the third was a missed opportunity — it seems to restate what was already stated in the second. Your first stanza suggests a sensual reality, and the second an artistic ideal — perhaps the third could have wed the two, or pointed to the gap between the ideal Isles of Romance and the more ambivalent reality, or perhaps even come down in favour of the flawed, but real, islands of this world over the romantic islands of the imagination. Hope to see more of your poetry here.
Thank you, Luke, for your evaluation and for your courteous suggestion.