"Why, Damon, why, why, why so pressing? The Heart you beg's not worth possessing: Each Look, each Word, each Smile's affected, And inward Charms are quite neglected: Then scorn her, scorn her, foolish Swain, And sigh no more, no more in vain. Beauty's worthless, fading, flying; Who would for Trifles think of dying? Who for a Face, a Shape wou'd languish, And tell the Brooks, and Groves his Anguish, Till she, till she thinks fit to prize him, And all, and all beside despise him?"
"Prof Kevin Killeen has written an excellent introduction to her 2,000-line poem The Song of the Three Children, Paraphras'd, which, not without some justification, he has headed Mary Chudleigh's View of the Entire Universe. A devout Anglican, self-taught in the subjects which were probably her deepest interest, Chudleigh blends her scientific understanding with a rich, biblical narrative, culminating in a praise-song to the Jewish heroes Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, the children who, in the Book of Daniel, un-scientifically survived incineration."
Mary Chudleigh, a Devon-born poet and essayist, argued that wit and virtue outweigh superficial beauty and social servility. She advanced women's education and offered proto-feminist critique, as in the short poem To the Ladies and the Essay on Knowledge. Chudleigh combined self-taught scientific knowledge with devout Anglican belief to create rich biblical narratives. Her 2,000-line Song of the Three Children mixes scientific understanding and religious praise, culminating in a defense of moral worth over appearance and a celebration of faithful endurance exemplified by Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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