Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Virginia




VIRGINIA

Oh Virginia! Virginia! That you should come to this!
A tea-towel in your name! What degradation!
Surely someone, somewhere has been very much remiss,
Placing you in a domestic situation!
You'd rather be off 'To the Lighthouse' or to Sissinghurst, perhaps,
Or merely in your study, busy writing.
You'd surely find this travesty a really tasteless lapse,
Though we might find its nuances inviting.
Were you alive, I wonder what your attitude would be
If you entered Shirley's kitchen and espied
This item which speaks loudly of crass publicity,
Something I'm sure you just could not abide!
It's a very pretty colour, I think you would admit,
And at least your name is proudly on display,
But I feel you'd be quite haughty and purse your lips a bit
Saying 'Kindly throw the wretched thing away.'
*

15 comments:

Reader Wil said...

Exactly! I cannot imagine Virginia Woolf with a teatowel in her hand drying the dishes. She was too sophisticated for this world.
Thanks for your visit!

Alan Burnett said...

Fun poem.
Mind you, I suspect that VW would simply go in search of any copyright fees that were due to her.

DawnTreader said...

I have not read a lot of Virgina Woolf except The Lighthouse... But I loved your poem (and doubt very much that Virgina would have loved the tea towel...)

Diligent Daydreamer said...

I love this..it's so fun and it does make you stop to wonder what people would think of the crazy merchandising that goes on these days. Great job

Kat said...

Read somewhere that J K Rowling sat at restaurants and wrote the HP stories...!!! And then she made it big. And now has a room of her own :-)))

My name is Riet said...

That is a great V post.

Rocky Mountain Woman said...

I love reading her diaries! I'll bet she'll come back and haunt anyone who buys those tea towels....

muhahahaha

ellen b said...

I'm so clueless but I would definitely throw that tea towel out to the Goodwill pile...

Unknown said...

She won't like any of the chores I have to do with dish towel.

lissa said...

I imagine she would be amuse by this but I guess I don't enough of her work to say so. fun prose though

Linda Bob Grifins Korbetis Hall said...

fun verse...

Judie said...

A Virginia Woolf tea towel???? How totally bizarre!

Susan Anderson said...

Yep, she would hate it, for sure.

Clever poem!

=)

Francisca said...

Virginia would surely be amused by your poem! I am! :-)

Jenny said...

This was fabulous!

You have my mind racing with unlikely marketing pairings now.

This made me laugh AND made me think...all at the same time!

Thanks for sharing this.

You are really impressive!