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Pre-Raphaelites Remembered

1/18/2021

ELIZABETH SIDDAL; The Woeful Victory

Be still.
It is evening.
I almost recognized you; who are you
Fair one?
Your mouth is stuffed with poppy hair;
Fate lies coiled between your breasts
Like a snake. But
Your tongue’s torn out.
You are the echo of my thoughts.
(I am the motionless cradle.)
Your flesh takes fire from my setting sun.
Will you free me, O Lady of the Sundial?
My eyes are growing dim.
(Perfect love’s not found this side of heaven.)
I shall paint you vermilion
Butcher nightingales and use their tongues for brushes
Melt you foil & verdigris
to the tune of Canterbury bells.
Stay awhile, Fair one.
I almost thought you spoke.
(I am the face rising from the pool
to drag the drinker deep.)
I am not whole, dear lady.
I am not myself.
Who are You?
(I am thyself. What hast thou done to me?)

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Alysse Aallyn

the author of four well-received thrillers, Find Courtney, Depraved Heart, Woman Into Wolfand I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead, one historical novel (Devlyn) and a book of short stories (Awake Till the End.) She has three published books of poetry – The Sacred Quiver, The Hot Skin and The Five Wounds and edited another (The Feathered Violin.) She trained in theatre at Circle in the Square Theatre School and Martha Graham School of Dance. She appeared in the part of Isabella in Jean Giraudoux’s The Enchanted at the New Yorker Theatre. She has held writing fellowships at Brooklyn College and LaSalle University. Her novel Depraved Heart won a 2011 CT Press Club fiction award and her play Queen of Swords was a semi-finalist in the 2014 National Arts Council First Play award. Woman Into Wolf was a semi-finalist for The National Playwrights Conference (2016). She has also appeared as a crime commentator on IV-TV’s Blood Relatives. Her play, Let’s Speak Vietnamese was published in Dramatika Magazine. Other plays she’s written are The Honey & the Pang about Emily Dickinson’s posthumous career, Cuck’d– a modern Othello, and Caving, in which the theatre is transformed into a cave for a spelunking dare. Her latest play, Rough Sleep, (based on her novel I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead) was produced by Manhattan Repertory Theatre (W. 45thSt) April 18, 19, 20, 2019. Her newest poetry collection, Haunted Wedding will be appearing in 2022 from Thriller Library.

Pre-Raphaelites Remembered

Alysse Aallyn

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