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Songs and Poetry of Love<br />
Love songs have been part<br />
of life since mankind fi rst<br />
walked the earth. In fact,<br />
recent research has found<br />
that even the Neanderthals<br />
(very early humans) could sing.<br />
But singing love songs is not<br />
confi ned to humans; song birds<br />
were singing to attract a mate long<br />
before humans were around and,<br />
even before birds, whales were<br />
singing in the depths of the ocean.<br />
So, song is as old as love itself.<br />
But there are many kinds of love.<br />
On Valentine’s Day, our thoughts<br />
turn naturally to romantic love<br />
between humans. Arguably, the<br />
greatest love song of all time can<br />
be found in the Bible between<br />
Ecclesiastes and Isaiah. It is<br />
called ‘The Song of Solomon’.<br />
Whoever wrote it, and however you<br />
interpret it, it stands as a glorious<br />
celebration of human love. ‘Set me<br />
as a seal upon your heart, as a seal<br />
upon your arm, for love is strong<br />
as death …. Many waters cannot<br />
quench love, neither can the fl oods<br />
drown it’. (chapter 8, verse 6)<br />
But it seems that, for most of<br />
history, only the males of the<br />
species sang ‘in public’. In birds<br />
and whales, this remains the case.<br />
But men sang songs of war as well<br />
as love. However, it is obvious<br />
that God intended women<br />
to sing as well<br />
because He gave<br />
them the vocal<br />
equipment to<br />
do so. And<br />
sing they did;<br />
lullabies to<br />
their children<br />
and story telling,<br />
handed down in<br />
folk songs which<br />
are still around today,<br />
hundreds of years later. It was not<br />
until the 19th Century that women<br />
came into their own as singers in<br />
opera and musical theatre. The<br />
Diva and Prima Donna were born,<br />
eventually to strip the men of their<br />
fame and fortune forever.<br />
Poetry and song fl owered in the<br />
trenches of the First World War,<br />
although most of the love poems<br />
have been cast aside by scholars<br />
in favour of the graphic brutality<br />
of the so-called ‘Soldier Poets’.<br />
Most of the love poems remained<br />
unpublished but many soldiers<br />
wrote, not of their love of wives and<br />
sweethearts but of their homeland<br />
and animal companions, particularly<br />
horses, with whom the soldiers<br />
formed a particularly strong bond.<br />
Love of homeland and countryside<br />
was a high priority for most soldiers.<br />
This is what they were fi ghting<br />
for. Who can forget Ivor Gurney’s<br />
heart-rending ‘Song’ written from<br />
the trenches in 1917? The last<br />
verse reads: ‘And who loves joy<br />
as he/ That dwells in shadows?/<br />
Do not forget me quite, /O Severn<br />
meadows’.<br />
The Second World War brought<br />
hardly any poetry. Soldiers had<br />
much less time on their hands<br />
and by then we had the radio (we<br />
called it the ‘wireless’). There were<br />
however plenty of songs and artists<br />
like Gracie Fields and Vera Lynn,<br />
the Forces Sweetheart, to sing<br />
them. Who, of a certain age, can<br />
forget, ‘The White Cliffs of Dover’<br />
and ‘We’ll meet again’?<br />
But what of love songs today?<br />
Fragments downloaded from You<br />
Tube? For me, ‘No, thank you’. If<br />
you want me, you’ll fi nd me curled<br />
up with a book of verse and an<br />
old-fashioned (vinyl) record of Mario<br />
Lanza singing songs from Ivor<br />
Novello musicals.<br />
Sylvia Bennett<br />
St Chad’s Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats<br />
Church Offi ce: Linden Avenue, Sheffi eld S8 0GA<br />
Tel: (0114) 274 5086<br />
Page 14<br />
email: offi ce@stchads.org<br />
website: www.stchads.org
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