Germaine Greer will be among those paying tribute to Elizabeth Melville, the early Scottish poet whose talents will be celebrated tomorrow in a series of events in Edinburgh (see Elizabeth Melville Day online for details).
Published at the start of the seventeenth century, she was preoccupied with religious matters, from a presbyterian perspective. Read aloud, her lines spring to life.
SONNET - I WILL BE AS ANE ELME
I will be as ane elme that still doth stand
and will not bowe for no kinkynd of blaist
I will have my affectiouns at
command
and cause them yeild to reasoun at the laist
in midst of all my paine I will hold fast
the herb of patience to cure
my sore
No kynd of greif sall mak my hairt agast
nor earthlie cairs torment my mynd no more
sould I lament I can not tell quhairfoir
It will be long or murning may me mend
altho I sould sit siching
evermore
no sichs nor sobbs can caus my greif tak end
Rejoyce in god my saull and be content
then hes thou more then welthie Cresis rent.
kinkynd=kind; Cresis=Croesus
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