Laurens Villa by Marie Van Vorst

Name: Laurens Villa
Author: Marie Van Vorst

The poem’s speaker recalls a night of intense happiness with Germaine, even while he fears that such bliss must provoke divine punishment. Germaine tells him that when Laurens died by the speaker’s sword, Laurens’s bloodshed opened her life to light and love. The speaker kisses her, and she falls asleep beside him. At dawn, he reaches for her and discovers that she is dead. Her body remains beautiful and smiling, but cold and without breath or pulse. Alone in the silent villa, he listens desperately for any sign of returning life, then breaks into grief. The house contains no one else but the doves in their rose-vine nook. Terrified to remain alone with Germaine’s body, he takes clothing from the hook, kisses it, calls her name, and covers her with a strip of linen as a winding sheet. He leaves the villa feeling suddenly aged. Others accuse him of having killed her while she lay in his embrace, but he insists that Germaine, if she could speak, would reject their accusation. She would say that, if love can kill, then he killed her only by loving her. The speaker expects eventually to sleep as she does, though not as deeply, because love was her final gift on earth. Germaine’s small cotton dress with ribbons still hangs by the door in the silent white villa, where only the doves witnessed what happened.

By Marie Van Vorst · First published 1913 · Genre: Narrative Poetry, Tragic Romance, Gothic Poetry · 925 words

First lines

"There is no happiness! " I cried. / "Hush, hush! " she laughed, lying by my side. / "I think I am too blest! The gods / Will smite me with their jealous rods / Upon thy breast! ". "Sweetheart," (she said,) / "Art not content? " I hid my head / In silence: whilst she laughed; all slow / Saying, -- "Oh, Love, since thou _must_ know! / When Laurens died, thy sword that let / His life out, with his red blood wet / Let in the light to me! ". I turned / And kissed her, till the fires burned / In flame to Eros. And she slept / Until the hushed white morning crept / And with unprisoned sunlight came / To wake with matin sword of flame.

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Laurens Villa is listed on Textopian as a poem by Marie Van Vorst, dated 1913 CE.

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Work type: Poem
Author: Marie Van Vorst
Date: 1913 CE
Language: English
Genres: Narrative Poetry, Tragic Romance, Gothic Poetry, Lyric Poetry, Elegiac Poetry
Length: 925 words
Structure: 1 section, 6 paragraphs
Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)

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Genres

Narrative Poetry — The work tells a complete, sequential story in verse: the speaker's lover Germaine dies suddenly after a night of intimacy, and he recounts his grief, isolation, and public accusation.
Tragic Romance — Its central subject is an intense romantic union destroyed by death, with love portrayed as both transcendent happiness and the source of devastating loss.
Gothic Poetry — The white villa, corpse-like beloved, tomb-like house, fearful solitude, suggestive accusation of murder, and pervasive atmosphere of death create a distinctly Gothic mood.
Lyric Poetry — The poem emphasizes the speaker's private emotional experience through highly musical, sensuous, image-rich language rather than detached narration.