Propinquity






I, being born a woman and distressed

I, being born a woman and distressed
By all the needs and notions of my kind,
Am urged by your propinquity to find
Your person fair, and feel a certain zest
To bear your body’s weight upon my breast:
So subtly is the fume of life designed,
To clarify the pulse and cloud the mind,
And leave me once again undone, possessed.
Think not for this, however, the poor treason
Of my stout blood against my staggering brain,
I shall remember you with love, or season
My scorn with pity, —let me make it plain:
I find this frenzy insufficient reason
For conversation when we meet again.
Edna St. Vincent Millay



Propinquity had a special meaning at the time Edna used it. It meant there was a powerful force acting on a man and woman in close proximity compelling them to have sex. It also meant the presumption that a man and a woman living together were having sex. Thus a woman's reputation would be tarnished if she lived with a man - as his housekeeper, for instance.

I mention this because the dictionaries I consulted didn't make this meaning of propinquity clear. Also the word has been hijacked by psychologists to endue their beliefs.

Edna's candle burned brightly but it didn't last, as she predicted. "Youth's a stuff will not endure", as my mate Will put it.
SpokenVerse

Comentários

  1. My candle burns at both ends; it will not last the night; but ah, my foes, and oh, my friends - it gives a lovely light!
    Edna St. Vincent Millay

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  2. Manchester é uma cidade feia.
    Mas, Manchester já me deu tantas alegrias em descobertas musicais, e são tantos e bons. Na memória sempre os “ Durutti Column” de Vini Reilly , ou “o mais belo som, depois do silêncio”.
    Manchester não merecia esta barbárie.
    “We've got no future, we've got no past”, pensam e actuam os bombistas.
    Não basta dizer “Todos somos Manchester”.

    Para Manchester:
    “If, when, why, what?
    How much have you got?
    Have you got it, do you get it, if so, how often?
    And which do you choose, a hard or soft option?”

    Pet Shop Boys – “West End Girls”

    https://youtu.be/p3j2NYZ8FKs

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