Epilogue The caution tape is tattered and flapping in the wind. Birds guard the median where glass and steel lie shattered. There are no robins hymning or gawkers at this scene— only a lowered sun, raw cries of crows, and dimming. To Her Husband for Beating Her Through your heart’s lining let there be pressed—slanting down— A dagger to the bone in your chest. Your knee crushed, your hand smashed, may the rest Be gutted by the sword you possessed. (Translated from the Middle Welsh of Gwerful Mechain)
Few medieval women wrote poetry, and those who did understandably tended to stick to safe subjects. Not so for bad-ass Gwerful Mechain (ca. 1460-1502), most known for her witty tribute to her genitalia—a poem that brashly responds to legendary Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym's poem to his genitalia. This "englyn" (a four-line epigram with set syllables and rhymes) may be the earliest extant poem objecting to domestic violence by a European woman. The title's pronoun is ambiguous—it's unclear whether Mechain was standing up for herself or someone else. A. M. Juster on "To Her Husband for Beating Her"
The Best Recent Poetry—Review Roundup Ben Wilkinson discusses new releases from John Challis, Lorna Goodison, Caleb Klaces, and Ralf Webb, as well as the anthology, Poetry & Covid-19, which he calls, "brilliantly eclectic, a testament to poetry’s power to reimagine and remake." viaTHE GUARDIAN
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