When You First Utter'd My Name

I just chanced to find lying derelict a poem that I wrote as a schoolboy to woo the young inamorata of my schooldays - a girl with double plaits that had just joined my class that I thought I loved. I mention double plaits because it achieved the twain of capitalising on my South Indian predisposition and capturing my pseudo-Victorian maudlin imagination! The first time I saw her, I thought she was the phantom of delight that Wordsworth had felt; the lovely apparition that had been sent to be a moment's ornament. I wrote her this Ode to precipitate my echoing of the Victorian thoughts I bore for her and carried it, pencilled in a notebook of mine. I secretly hoped that the paper would fly out in the class someday and, by a divine intervention, fall into her slender hands and that she would pour forth an overflowing glass of requite to me (That later another piece of paper flew to another girl did me little good. I shall write about it later). Ah! Those mornings when emotions weren't crumpled by creases of pragmatism; when I woke up with a strange synergy veering though my nerves; when I thought there was a strange nip in the cool air and I was summoned by the forces of nature to a higher calling, some heroic endeavour; little did it matter that I did not remotely know what kind of a task it meant! I was a man on a mission, and that was enough to make me feel valorous enough to try and woo a maiden! Those were the days...

NB: Needless to say, the crush was attrited the moment I grew some brains! And, needless to say, the poem in itself is hilariously Victorian!

(This poem which I had so delicately treasured for my fair maiden, my teacher somehow managed to catch hold of! And what's more, to my consternation, she matter-of-factly added that it was a good poem because it was able to inspire these feelings vicariously in the reader (which I presume was her)! And she, without breathing a word, had it published in the Young World in my name under the title 'On Love'! Needless to say, the news was meat and drink to the cannibalistic intents of my classmates! I was torn apart the next day, a slight relief being that the object of my affections was absent.)

When You First Utter'd My Name

When you first utter'd my name,
My heart leapt up above the clouds,
Transcending boundaries attain'd of fame.
All for an utterance- a solitary word.

Ne'er a joy so deep was felt,
E'en when clambered I the Peaks of Fame,
Only your words on my mind dwelt,
When I heard in your voice my name.

Ne'er a tune so sweet was heard
E'en from Temples' Bells of Hope that ring,
By utterances you have my heart endeared,
Tears of Joy to my eyes you bring.

Oh! When has my heart beat so fast
In my dreary life of many a year!
Oh! But only seconds did it last
And I clasp'd it to my bosom dear!

Thus have I felt in all my time,
But how you feel is prime, after all,
My name may seem worthless, funny, a rime,
Or et al, to you, may mean nothing at all.

- posted by Dileepan @ 5:35:00 am

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