The Gallery of Pigeons (Classic Reprint): And Other Poems

by Theo Marzials

Excerpt from The Gallery of Pigeons

De l'aurore amoureuse, a l'approche du jour. Et moi, chanteur aussi, je vais on Dieu me meme, En fredonnant les airs que peut-etre a voix pleine.

Genres: Poetry

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1873

About the author

Théophile-Jules-Henri "Theo" Marzials was a British poet, composer and singer. Marzials was described in 1894 as a "poet and eccentric" by parodist Max Beerbohm, and, after writing and performing several popular songs, vanished into obscurity. His poetry is seen as an example of 19th-century aestheticism.

Son of a pastor of the French Protestant Church of London, the youngest of five children he was educated at Merchant Taylors' School. In 1870 Marzials started work at the British Museum as a junior assistant in the librarian's office.

In 1873 Marzials's only published collection of poetry was released, The Gallery of Pigeons and Other Poems, which included the anthologised love poem "A Fragment". It also includes "A Tragedy", an unusual poem that has often been called the worst ever written in the English language. The poem has been chosen as the worst ever by Ross and Kathryn Petras in the 1997 book Very Bad Poetry and by the Not Terribly Good Club of Great Britain along with many other writers and critics. However, Ford Madox Brown called the collection "by far the most exquisite ... by any of the lesser Pre-Raphaelite poets".
Marzials later spent much of his time as a composer collaborating for several opera pieces, and in 1883 he released Pan Pipes, which coupled his music with the work of Christina Rossetti and the illustrations of Walter Crane.

Marzials's behaviour was often seen as eccentric and unusual, and he often gave impromptu performances of his works. He is quoted as saying "Am I not the darling of the British Museum reading room?" while inside that same silent room. Marzials worked at the British Museum until his retirement at the age of 32, after which he received a pension of £38 a year. This was supplemented by royalties from his published work which were estimated at around £1000 annually.

The relationship between Marzials and fellow author Edmund Gosse is debated, with some claims that their relationship was more than platonic. Marzials retired to Colyton, Devon in the early 1900s where he became addicted to chlorodyne. He died there in February 1920

Reviews

[Osiris Oliphant · Rating 4 out of 5]

bad poetry for bad people. i, for example, quite like it.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Athenaeum drolly reviewed it on 26 July 1873 as follows:

'we find that Mr Marzials dwells among marble columns, oleanders, rebecks, pleasances, large-lipped women, soft brown limbs, and lissome thighs, and that everything in his verses lounges or shimmers. Indeed, we fear that a general idea of lounging and shimmering is the only definite one that remains with us after reading The Gallery of Pigeons, and other Poems. For example, on one occasion –

All is a-grey, and the sky’s in a glimmer,
A glimmer as ever a sky should be;
Silvery grey with a silvery shimmer,
Where shimmers the sun in the hazes a-shimmer,
The shimmer of river, oh! river a-shimmer.

… [W]e must say that the repetition of the same word five times in three lines shows a certain want of familiarity with the language in which he writes. '

------------------------------------------------------
(probably the most beloved poem in the book-

>A Tragedy<

DEATH!
Plop.
The barges down in the river flop.
Flop, plop,
Above, beneath.
From the slimy branches the grey drips drop,
As they scraggle black on the thin grey sky,
Where the black cloud rack-hackles drizzle and fly
To the oozy waters, that lounge and flop
On the black scrag piles, where the loose cords plop.
As the raw wind whines in the thin tree-top.
Plop, plop.
And scudding by
The boatmen call out hoy ! and hey !
And all is running in water and sky,
And my head shrieks—“Stop,”
And my heart shrieks—“Die.”
* * * * *
My thought is running out of my head ;
My love is running out of my heart ;
My soul runs after, and leaves me as dead,
For my life runs after to catch them—and fled
They are all every one !—and I stand, and start,
All the water that oozes up, plop and plop,
On the barges that flop
And dizzy me dead.
I might reel and drop.
Plop.
Dead.
And the shrill wind whines in the thin tree-top.
Flop, plop.
* * * * *
A curse on him.
Ugh ! yet I knew—I knew—
If a woman is false can a friend be true?
It was only a lie from beginning to end—
My Devil—my “Friend”
I had trusted the whole of my living to !
Ugh ! and I knew !
Ugh !
So what do I care,
And my head is as empty as air—
I can do,
I can dare,
(Plop, plop,
The barges flop
Drip, drop.)
I can dare, I can dare !
And let myself all run away with my head,
And stop.
Drop
Dead.
Plop, flop.
Plop.
(Theophilius Marzials, 1873)

https://archive.org/details/galleryof...

[Domenico Francesco · Rating 1 out of 5]

Theo Marzials è stato un eccentrico inglese del '800, un vero e proprio personaggio. Oggi viene ricordato anche per questo libro di poesie, uno dei peggiori libri di poesia della storia (seppur allo stesso tempo molto meglio di altre cose che in tempi recenti vengono spacciati per tale). Un linguaggio estremamente, forzatamente aulico ma usato in maniera impropria per gli standard della poesia inglese dell'epoca dell'estetismo e dei preraffaelliti che parla di trote, piccioni, rane, topi spesso usati come metafore amorose. Meraviglioso anche l'uso delle interiezioni così fantasioso talvolta da anticipare involontariamente l'avanguardia (vedi A Tragedy, a mio parare la più divertente della raccolta). Non è un libro consigliato a tutti sicuramente, ma una piccola bizzarria so bad's so good della letteratura da riscoprire.

[SpaceBear · Rating 1 out of 5]

awful

[Bryn]

There is good bad poetry, which I really enjoy, but I think this may just be bad bad poetry? Whatever it is, I couldn't get anywhere with it. [Dec 2022]