To a Fat Lady

Yesterday I mentioned Frances Cornford (granddaughter of Charles Darwin). She was a poet, and the poem for which she is best known is rather peculiar. Here it is, along with the responses two other poets wrote to it.


To a Fat Lady Seen From the Train

O why do you walk through the fields in gloves,
Missing so much and so much?
O fat white woman whom nobody loves,
Why do you walk through the fields in gloves,
When the grass is soft as the breast of doves
And shivering sweet to the touch?
O why do you walk through the fields in gloves,
Missing so much and so much?

--by Frances Cornford (1886-1960)



The Fat White Woman Speaks

Why do you rush through the field in trains,
Guessing so much and so much?
Why do you flash through the flowery meads,
Fat-head poet that nobody reads;
And why do you know such a frightful lot
About people in gloves as such?
And how the devil can you be sure,
Guessing so much and so much,
How do you know but what someone who loves
Always to see me in nice white gloves
At the end of the field you are rushing by,
Is waiting for his Old Dutch?

--by G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936)


O why do you walk through the fields in boots,
Missing so much and so much?
O fat white woman whom nobody shoots,
Why do you walk through the fields in boots,
When the grass is soft as the breast of coots
And shivering-sweet to the touch?

--A.E. Housman (1859-1936)

Here is a photo of Frances Cornford. "To a Fat Lady" is a triolet. The "tri" comes in because the first line shows up three times (line 1, 4, and 7).