Notable & Poetical: "With Rue [Val's] Heart is Laden"

"With rue my heart is laden..." — Val Prieto, [title of post], Babalú, January 31, 2008

Although we wish to commend and encourage all literary allusions which Val can recollect from his high school days, we feel rather perplexed by his choice of A.E. Housman's adrogynous stanzas. We do not pretend to know what Val means by quoting them. We know so very little of what he means and must content ourselves with deciphering what he says, which is hard enough. All we know for sure is that it is his tribute to Fred Thompson.

Still, here are Housman's immortal lines and you make of them what you will:

With rue my heart is laden
For golden friends I had,
For many a rose-lipt maiden
And many a lightfoot lad.

By brooks too broad for leaping
The lightfoot boys are laid;
The rose-lipt girls are sleeping
In fields where roses fade.