Saturday, May 12, 2007

On Pain Extroverted Into Giddiness, Misinterpreted As Saintly Innocence


5/ On leaving Cambridge to settle in London in 1752, Christopher Smart began writing under the pseudonyms Mary Midnight and Ebenezer Pentweazle. Working closely together (in the confines of religious mania) these were married by their presiding minister in 1756 in the asylum of St. Luke's Hospital. Their first child they named "David". Their second, "Jubilate". Only much later and after the death of everyone involved photographs of the latter were reproduced to popular but more often than not glib acclaim. The most memorable of these: a prison kitty basking in a sunbeam.

4/ This, Mary and Eb's photogenic third child, was named "Geoffrey".

3/ Whom they later drowned in a bucket. Amen.

2/ All so water within this bucket might later be taken as holy, not by Smart's handlers but by himself.

1/ Which is to say, Recite these joys while looking in a mirror. Or don't.


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