The Queen said that, and for that, I feel that it is an ever-so-romantic quote! I love the Queen, most likely because a) I am not English; b) she has a posh British accent; and c) she looks like my Nanna. I can't remember where I initially found this quote but it has got me a-thinking. Grief and love are two of the strongest emotions a person can feel and everyone would have experienced both at some point in their lives. So does this make them easier or harder to depict in art and literature? I just know that when it is done well, the impact is phenomenal!! Here are my favourite depictions of grief and love. What are yours?
"Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living! You said I killed you - haunt me, then! The murdered do haunt their murderers. I believe - I know that ghosts have wandered on earth. Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh God! it is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!"'Wuthering Heights' is my FAVOURITE book. Really seriously absolutely my favourite. I even have an 1858 edition of it. Bliss!! So of course my choice for Best Grief (at the macabre Oscars here at Once, Oh Marvellous Once) would come from there. I chose this passage mainly because it is the most widely known, not because it is necessarily my favourite bit. But doesn't it just portray grief in such a desperate heart-wrenching manner?
I shall see you - as you were the moment before the madness - until the day I die. Your little face, with its pale candour, turned to me - and your hand out - in the watery sunshine, between the great trees. And I could have taken your hand - or not taken your hand - could I not? Either? But now only the one. Never have I felt such a concentration of my whole Being - on one object, in one place, at one time - a blessed eternity of momentariness that went on forever, it seemed. I felt you call me, though your voice said something different, something about the rainbow spectrum - but the whole of you, the depth of you called to me and I had to answer - and not with words - this wordless call. Now is this only my madness? With you in my arms (I tremble as I remember it to write it) I was sure it was not.I love 'Possession'. So many of my friends haven't made it through. I will admit that I was struggling a little at first as well and then I peeked forward and saw this letter from Randolph Henry Ash to Christabel Lamotte and I was hooked. Again, perhaps not the best passage from the whole book, but one that I just loved!!
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