My Love is Theosophist
My love is a Theosophist
And reads the Ramayana;
Her luncheon is a pot of tea,
Her breakfast a banana.
She says that matter tends to clog
The spirit-force behind it.
My love is a Theosophist,
And very tough I find it.
My love is a Theosophist
And wears no combinations;
She says they get her thought-urge weak
And lower her vibrations.
She tells me flannel next the skin
Impedes the astral motions.
My love is a Theosophist,
And has the strangest notions.
My love is a Theosophist,
And few things I deplore as
Sincerely as the thoughtless way
She crabs her neighbours' auras.
She sensed Miss Hope's as bilious green,
And got some quack to vet it.
My love is a Theosophist,
And many folk regret it.
My love is a Theosophist,
And though distinctly stouter
She moves on a more mental plane
Than do the folks about her.
She moved into a potted plant
Last week at Mrs Reece's.
My love is a Theosophist,
So I picked up the pieces.
My love is a Theosophist,
And has an intimation
That she was Florence Nightingale
In her last incarnation.
She senses me as Titus Oates,
More Ape-man than Apollo,
My love is a Theosophist,
And difficult to follow.
My love is a Theosophist,
And does not seem to worry
If they forget to send the fish
Or fail to cook the curry.
As my potatoes grow more burnt
Her temper grows the sweeter.
My love is a Theosophist,
And lives on Veeta Weeta.
My love is a Theosophist--
Or, rather, is no longer;
For, though her Ego-urge was strong,
The Cosmic Will was stronger.
While moving on the Higher Plane
She moved into a lorry.
My love was a Theosophist,
And really I'm not sorry.
Commentary
Patrick Barrington succeeded an uncle to become the 11th Viscount Barrington. He died at the age of 81 on 6 April 1990. There was an enthusiastic audience of devotees for Barrington’s whimsical verse, much of it published in Punch in the early 1930s.
‘My Love is a Theosophist’ is characteristic of his style. It is instructive as well as entertaining. References to psychic beliefs (“vibrations”, “cosmic will”, and so on) show that little has changed in psychic belief systems over the last 70 years. A chemist or physicist who walked through a time warp in a laboratory of 70 years ago would be immediately struck by the archaic apparatus in use. If you walked into a spiritualist’s or psychic’s den of 70 years ago – apart from the absence of a personal computer on the desk in the corner – you would perceive little change.
That is one way of illustrating how science develops by it superseding and replacing inferior theories and methods in a continuing process of innovation which fosters a progressive incremental process of improvement in our understanding. Paranormal beliefs, in contrast, are moribund. The silver lining to this otherwise darkish cloud is that Barrington’s whimsical scepticism resonates as delightfully and with as much relevance today as when they were penned more than seventy years ago.
— William Grey
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From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.
Sue Barrow · 29 October 2004
Loved it - keep them coming
With appreciation
Sue
Ian Baillieu · 29 October 2004
Good fun! But surely ‘as’ in the 5th-last line is a typo. Should it be ‘is’ or ‘was’?
bettywarrilow · 1 November 2004
the address the comment came from is not the one I usually use - my email address is actually if you want to put it on!
I love the minstrels site, by the way, even if I did just send a grumpy comment.
Fay
bettywarrilow · 1 November 2004
Not a comment on the poem as such - more a comment on the comment. I probably give paranormal beliefs little more credence than William Grey, but I find his dismissal of them as ‘moribund’ and his equally zealous belief in the all-encompassing possibilities of science very interesting. It must be very comforting to be so fervent about the ability of science to replace ‘inferior theories and methods’. Perhaps one day it will render poetry unnecessary too - indeed, Patrick Barrington is no doubt better than Shakespeare because he is more recent.
Or perhaps not.
Fay Warrilow
William Grey · 3 November 2004
There was a typo in the 5th last line of #1551 which I submitted. As has been pointed out, “as” should be “was”. Please correct in due course. William Grey