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Letters - Mark Bradshaw

Letters-Mark Bradshaw.mp3
[00:37.75]My dearest lady, [00:40.87]I am now at a...
[00:37.75]My dearest lady,
[00:40.87]I am now at a very pleasant cottage window
[00:43.59]looking onto a beautiful hilly country,
[00:46.60]with a view of the sea.
[00:49.02]The morning is very fine.
[00:51.54]I do not know how elastic my spirit might be,
[00:55.36]what pleasure I might have in living here
[00:57.01]if the remembrance of you did not weigh so upon me.
[01:02.29]Ask yourself, my love, whether you are not very cruel to have so entrammelled me,
[01:07.11]so destroyed my freedom.
[01:11.65]For myself, I know not how to express my devotion to so fair a form.
[01:17.28]I want a brighter word than bright,a fairer word than fair.
[01:25.04]I almost wish we were butterflies
[01:28.01]and lived but three summer days.
[01:31.72]Three such days with you I could fill with more delight
[01:33.78]than 50 common years could ever contain.
[01:52.19]When you can confess this in a letter
[01:54.50]you must write immediately
[01:56.27]and do all you can to console me in it,
[01:59.29]make it rich as a draft of poppies
[02:00.89]to intoxicate me,
[02:02.92]write the softest words and kiss them
[02:06.75]That I may at least touch my lips where yours have been
[02:14.42]“My dear Mr. Keats, thank you for your letter.
[02:18.86]Lately I have felt so nervous and ill that I had to stay five days in bed.
[02:23.91]Have received your letter,
[02:25.85]I am up again, walking our paths on the heath.
[02:29.06]I’ve begun a butterfly farm in my bedroom in honor of us.
[02:32.79]Sammy and Toots are catching them for me
[02:35.92]Samuel has made a science of it
[02:37.98]and is collecting both caterpillars and chrysalises
[02:40.33]so we may have them fluttering about us a week or more.”
[02:50.69]“I have two luxurious to brood over in my walks,
[02:54.32]your loveliness and the hour of my death.
[02:58.00]O that O could have possession of them both in the same minute.
[03:02.74]I never knew before what such a love as you have made me feel was.
[03:06.77]I did not believe in it.
[03:08.60]But if you will fully love me,
[03:10.97]though there may be some fire,
[03:12.18]it will not be more than we can bear when moistened and bedewed with pleasures.”
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