Re: Petra
- From: cri@xxxxxxxx (Richard Harter)
- Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2006 15:55:00 GMT
On 23 Apr 2006 08:37:33 -0700, delcolja@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Richard Harter wrote:
A while back I posted a copy of the sonnet, Petra, by John William
Burgon, on my website. The last line, "A rose-red city, half as old as
Time," is quite well known. There is a little mystery about this
poem.
All of the sources for the poem (but one)list it as a sonnet,
Most of the ones I've looked at simply call it a poem. If it was done
as a sonnet, it's an odd one for being in heroic couplets.
with a
couple of small variations in wording. The story of the poem is that
it won the Newdigate Prize for Poetry for undergraduates at Oxford, in
1845. However in the March/April issue of Saudi/Aramco World there is
an article by Richard Usborne that says that the poem had 371 lines.
A curious number for a poem in couplets.
Usborne's article goes into considerable detail about the history of
poems about Petra, and gives the impression that Usborne was quite
knowledgeable.
Does anyone have any information as to the legitimacy of Usborne's
article. If he is correct, where did the famous sonnet come from?
Why not write to Usborne via Saudi/Aramco World and ask him?
I will give it a try, but I have no great hopes. The article was
published in 1976! It's my bad for not including the date.
Richard Harter, cri@xxxxxxxx
http://home.tiac.net/~cri, http://www.varinoma.com
It is not wise to examine apparent coincidences too closely.
Sometimes they are not coincidences at all.
.
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