Tongues Of Fire

( This poem is based on “ A Room of One’s Own” by Virginia Woolf. The third chapter in it titled ‘Shakespeare’s Sister’ starts with Woolf’s quest to dig out facts about women in Elizabethan England. She resorts to Professor Trevelyan’s ‘ History Of England’ because she couldn’t find any other resources which detailed on women’s condition. To her horror she saw that wife beating was the right of all men high or low . If a daughter refused to marry a man of her father’s choice, she can be locked up and beaten to approval. Child marriage was prevalent and women obviously were denied education. She supposes that if Shakespeare had a sister named Judith ( JUST HER IMAGINATION) with as much creativity it was hard for her to get recognized. Women had to educate themselves , when their men are away , some even used to compose poems and because of lack of courage hid it or set them to fire. When we hear a story about a witch, a herb seller or any of the kind of fairy tales we are on the track of some mute and inglorious Jane Austen who might have become renowned had she had the courage to come forward. I dedicate this poem to those long lost sisters who could not make an impact.)
Fire blazed within the hearth
The brick-home was fast asleep
Save a scratch of quill upon the paper.
There on a wooden chair
Arabesque hair falling down
A dream alight in those
Hazel eyes she wrote a sonnet.
A hand that told tales
Dwelt in the moor of memory
Nimble fingers stroked the
Newly filled pages.
Door was opened, a crack
Giving her heart a start
Her creation crumbled in her
Hands, a tear glistened her eyes
Now the masterpiece lay consumed
By the tongues of Fire.

© SV