But What Shall We Do For A Ring

A boat and two flowers and a quote from Edward Lear’s poem The Owl and The Pussycat.

And topped off with ‘Be My Valentine’ as the name of the boat.

With all of it set against an impressionistic blue sea with toy waves.

Edward Lear

In case you don’t know it, the quote ‘Oh let us be married, too long we have tarried’ is from the second verse of the poem. It goes:

Pussy said to the Owl, “You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried,
But what shall we do for a ring?

Too Long We Have Tarried

There is a whole story tucked in those words ‘too long we have tarried’, isn’t there. It is the story of a couple who have been romantically entwined for ages, for forever, but until how have not taken the step into marriage.

This is of course leaving aside that in this particular case we are talking about crossing the species boundary – so children probably aren’t going to be in the picture for the couple’s future life together.

Still – love is love.

My Favourite Line

My favourite line from the poem is the one that goes:

Dear Pig, are you willing
to sell for one shilling
your ring?
Said the Piggy, “I will.

The more prosaic and direct way to have phrased it would have been to ask whether the pig was willing to sell the ring. And then to offer a price, something like:

Will you sell the ring, I can offer you one shilling.

But that is not what the poet does. He makes his character do a little musical sidestep mid sentence by mentioning the price with the words ‘for one shilling’. It is just delightful.

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The card at the top of this article is one of the Valentine’s Day cards now available at Flying Twigs.