Old Letters by Poet, Norman Rowland Gale

OLD LETTERS

Last night some yellow letters fell
From out a scrip I found by chance;
Among them was the silent ghost,
The spirit of my first romance:
And in a faint blue envelope
A withered rose long lost to dew
Bore witness to the dashing days
When love was large and wits were few.

Yet standing there all worn and grey
The teardrops quivered in my eyes
To think of Youth's unshaken front,
The forehead lifted to the skies;
How rough a hill my eager feet
Flung backward when upon its crest
I saw the flutter of the lace
The wind awoke on Helen's breast!

How thornless were the roses then
When fresh young eyes and lips were kind
When Cupid in our porches proved
How true the tale that Love is blind!
But Red-and-White and Poverty
Would only mate while shone the May;
Then came a Bag of Golden Crowns
And jingled Red-and-White away.

Grown old and niggard of romance
I wince not much at aught askew,
And often ask my favorite cat
What else had Red-and-White to do?
And here's the bud that rose and sank,
A crimson island on her breast--
Why should I burn it? Once again
Hide, rose, and dream. God send me rest.

Norman Rowland Gale

Norman Rowland Gale was an English poet and story-teller. He served as a reviewer, and spent some time as a schoolmaster. He must have lived a rather private life from March 4, 1862 until October 7, 1942 as there are few biographical details available for us to learn. From about 1885 until his death, he published many books, with his most famous work being the poem The Country Faith, which made publication in the immediate classic Oxford Book of English Verse 1250–1918 (1939 edition). This photograph is purportedly of Norman Rowland Gale, the poet.

The melancholy poem featured in this post is titled Old Letters, and is a constituent of the book
Love Letters of Great Men Vol. 2.

The beautiful painting of the forlorn lady opening this post is from an antique postcard featured on Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York City. The artist is not named, and I see no identifying mark on the image. If you have any information about the artist, please contact me.

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Drew Barrymore: Advocate for Old-Fashioned Correspondence

Drew Barrymore has a penchant for writing letters, and when it comes to corresponding, she eschews faster forms of conveyances in favor of the handwritten. She considers it more meaningful to pen a note, and insists people write letters to her instead of sending an email or other electronic communication.

In method preparations for her Golden Globe award-winning role in the 2009 HBO movie Grey Gardens, she isolated herself from all modern communicative technologies, and limited herself to letter writing as a way of entrenching herself into her vintage character, Little Edie Beale. Barrymore went into seclusion, “No contact with friends, no cell phones, no Black Berry, no newspapers, no magazines, no computers, no cars, no television. Nothing, for three months,” she said. "But she’d write,” said on-again, off-again boyfriend, Justin Long. Long tells of her creative letter writing, "She'd write beautiful, profound, poetic letters on a typewriter."

As for the subject of the letters, Drew revealed, "They were about my fears of not being able to pull this character off; this icon, and about learning a level of discipline… about facing your fears." Barrymore said the old-fashioned letters, which she wrote on an avocado green IBM Selectric typewriter, helped her work through her jitters about the part. "I had to understand what isolation was really like."

Even after the role ended, Drew explains "I still write letters. I don't want to communicate in a relationship via text and email. I love a letter. You are thoughtful when you write it, and someone can read it, and hold onto it, and go back to it. For me, there's something very dangerous to have everything so instantaneous."

The star of Grey Gardens has wishes for social betterment, where folks become more gracious and mindful of their manners. As in times past, people were polite and ceremonial in their conduct, and acted out of consideration. She longs for a resurgence of this courtesy and gallantry, “There's a part of me that misses the grace and formalities of the past," says Drew. "Like, when gentlemen wore hats and opened doors.” Although, she is not all old-school airs and elegance. “I love that now, we're not trying to pretend so much that everything is prim and proper,” laughs Drew. “I'd like to find a balance."


Both gorgeous photographs are of Drew Barrymore looking like an old-Hollywood, living vintage doll in an Alberta Ferretti gown, and a true vintage headpiece as she appeared at the Ziegfeld Theater, New York City premiere of Grey Gardens.

The exceedingly interesting characters of "Big Edie" and "Little Edie" are true-to-life socialites from an era past. Edith "Big Edie" Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edith "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale were the aunt and first cousin of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. The two women lived together at Grey Gardens, a decrepit mansion at 3 West End Road, in the wealthy neighborhood of East Hampton, New York for decades with limited funds, resulting in squalor and almost total isolation. The home became the center of quite a scandal when it was revealed in 1973 that the reclusive aunt and cousin to Jackie O. were living in a state of poverty and filth.

Both the original documentary, and the modern HBO movie, are critically acclaimed, award winning, and gleamingly reviewed by viewers.

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Love Letters To Elizabeth Taylor

Hollywood royal, Elizabeth Taylor, has offered a generous and intimate glimpse into her bedside stand by revealing her treasured, personal, and never-before-seen love letters from star crossed lover, Richard Burton. The scandalous relationship between these two charismatic and legendary stars was infamously passionate and equally as tumultuous. It turns out, Richard's love letters to Elizabeth parallelled those lines of passion and turbulence with his writings of his profound desire for her and a remarkable darkness revealing his extreme vulnerability in the face of existing without her. In this momentous collection of magical love letters from Richard Burton, he reveals himself to be a charming, talented, lusty letter writer, and creatively exposes his mischievous spirit in effortless mastery.

Richard found that Elizabeth's allure was impossible to escape. He mused, even until his end, in the possibility of rekindling their relationship. To Richard, Elizabeth was a painful temptation, irresistable and magnificently attractive. He was fascinated by her - delighted by her - dashed by her.

This spell-binding couple created fan pandemonium in their outings, which in turn gave rise to the paparazzi phenomenon. The unprecedented access to Richard's personal love letters and diary writings came in time to promote and support this juicy and scathing biography of the two:

Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century

In an short excerpt from a Kathleen Hughes review of the book Furious Love:

It's a mesmerizing tale - sad, sometimes ugly -

as the two stars engaged in vicious fights,

nursed their jealousies and insecurities,

and descended into alcoholism,

while outwardly living a life of glamour and sophistication.




The beautiful illustration leading this post is from the original motion picture soundtrack of the movie The Sandpiper, starring both Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton while they were in their honeymoon phase. The few Amazon reviews for this soundtrack are of astounding compliment, worthy of a read themselves, and the music has been described as haunting, intoxicating, seductive, and romantic.

We are privileged to to behold these private letters from

a legendary and powerful love affair.

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