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Jenny Kissed Me
‘A Chelsea Interior’, showing Thomas Carlyle and his wife Jane.
‘A Chelsea Interior’ by Robert Scott Tait (1816–1897), painted in 1857. It shows Thomas Carlyle and his wife Jane in their home, and Jenny, sitting perhaps in the very chair from which she started with such pleasure when Leigh Hunt came in that day in 1838.
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‘A Chelsea Interior’ by Robert Scott Tait (1816–1897), painted in 1857. It shows Thomas Carlyle and his wife Jane in their home, and Jenny, sitting perhaps in the very chair from which she started with such pleasure when Leigh Hunt came in that day in 1838.
Introduction
Leigh Hunt first published this delightful poem (which he labelled a Rondeau, though hardly in the technical sense of that term) in The Monthly Chronicle for November 1838. It was inspired by a impulsive greeting from Jane Welsh, wife of Thomas Carlyle.
Rondeau*
JENNY kissed me when we met,
Jumping from the chair she sat in;
Time, you thief, who love to get
Sweets into your list, put that in;
Say I’m weary, say I’m sad,
Say that health and wealth have missed me,
Say I’m growing old, but add,
Jenny kissed me.*
From ‘The Poetical Works of Leigh Hunt’ (1923) edited by H. S. Milford.
* A rondeau is a very formal Mediaeval kind of verse. Properly speaking, it is a poem of three stanzas, one of five lines, one of four, and one of six, and the opening words should be repeated as a refrain at the close of the second and third stanzas. This last rule is the only feature of a Rondeau that Hunt’s one-stanza poem satisfies.
* Jenny was Jane Carlyle, née Welsh, wife of essayist Thomas Carlyle. According to Elizabeth Drew (1887-1965), Jane’s biographer, Hunt had been unwell when he came to see the Carlyles in their Chelsea home, and the kiss was born of joy and relief. The Hunts and the Carlyles were neighbours and on friendly terms, and to judge by her letters Jane was quite a kissy lady. Indeed, Jane left record of an occasion when she was somewhat affronted because Leigh Hunt had not kissed her. “If he had kissed me it would have been intelligible,” she wrote in bewilderment, “but Susan Hunter of all people!”
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Leigh Hunt, the Victorian writer, called on his friends the Carlyles one day, and was rewarded with an impulsive kiss from Jane. He wrote a short poem recalling Jane’s gesture, and telling Time, which takes people’s happiest memories, that this one deserved to be the crown jewel, for it reconciled him to life’s every sorrow. (55 / 60 words)
Leigh Hunt, the Victorian writer, called on his friends the Carlyles one day, and was rewarded with an impulsive kiss from Jane. He wrote a short poem recalling Jane’s gesture, and telling Time, which takes people’s happiest memories, that this one deserved to be the crown jewel, for it reconciled him to life’s every sorrow.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: besides, despite, if, may, must, or, otherwise, whether.
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Jump. You. Your.
2 Add. Chair. Love.
3 I. Get. Kiss.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
High Tiles Find in Think and Speak
Make words (three letters or more) from the seven letters showing below, using any letter once only. Each letter carries a score. What is the highest-scoring word you can make?
Your Words ()
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