What Thompson knew first-hand about Arabic poetry is unclear. "Thy tribe's black tents" is eloquent code for what he felt about the King family.īorrowing the mask of another culture, perhaps pretending to be a translation, the poem might, with some justification, be labelled pastiche. Her mother disapproved of Thompson's courtship, and warned him off in a hurtful letter. But the inspiration of "An Arab Love-Song" is thought to be a later acquaintance, a young short story writer named Katie King. While living rough in London, Thompson found occasional refuge with a kindly woman who worked as a prostitute. This little erotic lyric is an oddity in his work, and yet it seems to possess, in miniature, the rhythmic drive and flexibility which make "The Hound Of Heaven" memorable on its more ambitious scale. Thanks largely to their interventions, he kicked his opium habit for extensive periods, made his mark as an essayist, and published three collections of verse before a final descent into dereliction. Francis, despite his own dreadful nights of homelessness and addiction, was blessed by a strong religious faith, and by the friendship and support of the Meynells. But James was the true poète maudit, the "laureate of pessimism", as he was nicknamed, who could raise squalor to the level of the visionary. Both men were utterly original, extremists in their work and in their sometimes wretched lives. This week's poem is "An Arab Love-Song", by Francis Thompson (1859-1907), author of the great Christian ode, " The Hound of Heaven" and not to be confused with the Scottish poet James Thomson (1834-82), who wrote "The City of Dreadful Night".
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