Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

Poetry Library Southbank Centre - The Poetry Library housing the Arts Council Collection at Southbank Centre

« Previous item
Contents of this issue
Next item »

James Laughlin

print this page

Cultural Note

o bella mia patria in Verona
there is a special box in the

post office to receive letters
addressed to Romeo & Juliet

they come from all over the
world especially Japan and

are written in many languages
and some enclose little gifts

or photographs the writers of
these letters have many prob-

ems of the heart and there
are two polylingual and com-

passionate spinsters who pre-
pare individualized replies

hand written in Renaissance
script (no doubt they are on

the payroll of the Ufficio
del Turismo) Dear Romeo &

Juliet I need your counsel
and your consolation there

is this girl who does not
realize how lovable I am.

 


[For the basis of this unlikely story see H. V. Morton: A Traveller in Italy, New York, 1964, pages 304-5. Morton repeats the libel that the sarcophagus in the abandoned monastery near the Portoni della Brà is really a beautiful horse-trough, but I know that ‘…here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes This vault a feasting presence full of light.’ ‘per cui tanto piansero i cuori gentili e i poeti cantarano.’]

 

Page(s) 104

Back to top