Foolish, common boy-man, save your cheap
valentines for one more deserving of banal art,
Not me. I have no heart, no sympathy, no softness --
only coarse paper clenched into a contrived rose.
I am cold as insincere praise, perhaps
more subtle, but not less parched. Ring the bell
if you seek a lifetime of deception and regret,
my snares are the finest in the land. Otherwise
bury my name in your ledger book, your dreaming
nightmare. What -- of this dull emotion? Desire is only
a feeling of lack, better discarded than lingered on
your quixotic lips. Visionary boy -- or man,
I could be studied, torn or even burnt --
Don't forget, paper is only an element of ash.
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Character studies are one way (for me at least) to completely grasp the nuances of a literary figure.
This poem was written with 2 motivations in mind:
I'd just finished "Great Expectations" the day before, and I wanted to encapsulate Estella's complexity in as sparse a manner as possible, without sacrificing the vivacity of Dickens's endorsement.
This poem also references Carol Ann Duffy's Haversham, and was meant as part of a triptych involving Duffy's interpretation, mine and Pip's.
Pip's reply is buried in my blog somewhere, but because I didn't think it captures the crux of the character (it actually reads like a prose poem, which was against what I'd set out to do), so it'll be some time before I post it -- more revision needs to be done.