Unchained Melody

I would like to be at that seashore now:

The admiral and I used to stand at another seashore, this, the edge of Manhattan (not far from the apartment we lived in for 11 years), a vast swirling turn of the Hudson, across the way on one side New Jersey and on the other the Bronx. We would look down, hold tight to our dog, Llyr on a leash. A George Bellowes painting.

TerraGeorgeBellows

Much afraid went over the river singing/Though none knew what she sang —  Empson (another of Jim’s favorite poets)

Part of the terror and mad desperation of having to remain alive without my beloved is he used to support and help me in all the many times I have lived in uncertainty and distress. I am in such a state this morning. I used to say he was the blood that flowed through my heart. I thought I was exaggerating but those were the words that came to mind when I tried to say what his presence by me meant — why and how I loved him.

Sylvia

Author: ellenandjim

Ellen Moody holds a Ph.D in British Literature and taught in American senior colleges for more than 40 years. Since 2013 she has been teaching older retired people at two Oscher Institutes of Lifelong Learning, one attached to American University (Washington, DC) and other to George Mason University (in Fairfax, Va). She is also a literary scholar with specialties in 18th century literature, translation, early modern and women's studies, film, nineteenth and 20th century literature and of course Trollope. For Trollope she wrote a book on her experiences of reading Trollope on the Internet with others, some more academic style essays, two on film adaptations, the most recent on Trollope's depiction of settler colonialism: "On Inventing a New Country." Here is her website: http://www.jimandellen.org/ellen/ No part of this blog may be reproduced without express permission from the author/blog owner. Linking, on the other hand, is highly encouraged!

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