Fanny Brawne In Love

[BobBradshaw]

Fanny Brawne In Love

You couldn’t dance
but Fanny was passionate
about it the way she was about French.

When she danced with rivals
who spoke French fluently
your basic French
couldn’t catch up.
You were like a man with crutches
on a dance floor.

Even after the two of you
became engaged
you were sure Fanny
could never love you
the way you loved her.

How foolish you would have felt
knowing Fanny wore her
engagement ring from you, John,

even after your death,
all the days of her marriage,
till the day she died,

your tender words you spoke
to her memorized,
etched as solidly in her heart
as lines in a wood print.

How could she not to the end
be puzzled and maybe hurt
by your grave’s words:
“Here lies One Whose Name
Was Writ in Water”.

[Billy]

I really relate to this Bob. I'm a sucker for unrequited love, and I usually feel unlovable. Like the whole poem

[FranktheFrank]

I found it difficult to understand.

Did Fanny marry someone else?
John was in love with her,
and Fanny was in love with him,
but they never married?

Maybe:
puzzled and maybe hurt
by your gravestone epitaph:

I don't get the name written in water either.
Why would she be upset?

[Kenneth2816]

Very clever old man. What an honor to lose out to John Keats. You are sly. The voice of her husband.

I saw a photo of the ring he gave her in 1818.

Keats asked that his headstone bear no name,
only that inscription.

[BobBradshaw]

Thanks, Billy. I know the feeling.
Ieuan, thanks…. Fanny married 12 years after Keats died.
Ken, thank you.