And the work of our head and hand,
Belong to the woman who did not know
(And now we know that she never could know)
And did not understand.
~Rudyard Kipling
When I think of Rudyard Kipling Just So Stories is the very first thing that comes to mind, and then I start singing ♫♪♪♪ "Look for the bare necessities, the simple bare necessities, forget about your worry and your strife..." ♪♪♫
Kipling has a vast array of work, most of which I have not read, yet I never pegged him for a vampire type. The poem was inspired by a Philip Burne-Jones painting.
Read the poem in it's entirety. It goes better with the painting - you get more a feel for what the poem is about. It's a rather misogynistic bit of poetry. But I do like the rhythm and the parentheticals, Kipling characteristics that have always delighted me as a reader.
Note: The Cat That Walked By Himself and The Elephant's Child are awesome Just So Stories.
Something else I learned: Der Vampir written by Heinrich August Ossenfelder in 1748 is wiely accepted as the first ever poem about a vampire.
Second note: After a lunch discussion today about sparkly vampires vs the more traditional sort I was supposed to be learning something about vampire sex today - but I got sidetracked. Hey! It's always good to learn a new poem, isn't it?
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