General Chat

Top tip - using the Genes Reunited community

Welcome to the Genes Reunited community boards!

  • The Genes Reunited community is made up of millions of people with similar interests. Discover your family history and make life long friends along the way.
  • You will find a close knit but welcoming group of keen genealogists all prepared to offer advice and help to new members.
  • And it's not all serious business. The boards are often a place to relax and be entertained by all kinds of subjects.
  • The Genes community will go out of their way to help you, so don’t be shy about asking for help.

Quick Search

Single word search

Icons

  • New posts
  • No new posts
  • Thread closed
  • Stickied, new posts
  • Stickied, no new posts

a ring of bright water

ProfilePosted byOptionsPost Date

RolloTheRed

RolloTheRed Report 19 Mar 2013 10:44

I stumbled across this, I liked it.

The Marriage of Psyche by Kathleen Raine

He has married me with a ring, a ring of bright water
Whose ripples travel from the heart of the sea,
He has married me with a ring of light, the glitter
Broadcast on the swift river.
He has married me with the sun's circle
Too dazzling to see, traced in summer sky.
He has crowned me with the wreath of white cloud
That gathers on the snowy summit of the mountain,
Ringed me round with the world-circling wind,
Bound me to the whirlwind's centre.
He has married me with the orbit of the moon
And with the boundless circle of stars,
With the orbits that measure years, months, days, and nights,
Set the tides flowing,
Command the winds to travel or be at rest.

At the ring's centre,
Spirit, or angel troubling the pool,
Causality not in nature,
Finger's touch that summons at a point, a moment Stars and planets, life and light
Or gathers cloud about an apex of gold,
Transcendent touch of love summons my world into being.

<3

Kucinta

Kucinta Report 19 Mar 2013 15:51

Gavin Maxwell used that excerpt at the front of his book Ring of Bright Water about his living with otters.

The original poem is much longer if I remember rightly.

I believe Kathleen Raine had a bit of an unrequited thing for him (Gavin Maxwell), but they had some sort of falling out.

He mentioned something in one of his books about a witch laying her hands on a rowan tree and cursing either him or his home, not sure if that was a reference to KR.

AnninGlos

AnninGlos Report 19 Mar 2013 15:52

Yes, I like that as well.