Synopsis
Poems by Violet Fane. This late nineteenth-century collection gathers a wide range of lyric and narrative verse that probes time, memory, love, mortality, and the consolations of art. Spanning the years 1880 to 1891, the two-volume sequence blends intimate domestic scenes with grand, almost mythic landscapes—Egyptian scarabs, storm-lashed seas, marble statues, and shadowed halls of memory. Its centerpiece pieces include The Centenarian, The Ghost Story, Life’s Afternoon, and the epic The Scarab, alongside a suite of Six Sonnets and numerous shorter lyrics. Formally varied, the book moves from ballad-like narrative to compact, musical lyrics and dramatic monologues, including The Last Words of Don Carlos and A Wife’s Confession. The tone is elegiac and reflective, often tinged with melancholy, irony, and a sense of fin-de-siècle unease. Across its richly imagistic scenes, Violet Fane contemplates aging, desire, art’s price, and the persistence of memory when Time presses on.
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