Crazy Jane Reproved
Crazy Jane Reproved - fact Summary
Published in the Tower
This short lyric, appearing in the collection The Tower, addresses maritime speech and mythic imagery through a conversational voice. It invokes the Europa myth and domestic seashell imagery to chide emotional folly, closing each stanza with the folk refrain "Fol de rol." The poem compresses moral reproach and playful music, using myth and refrain to contrast romantic impulse with worldly caution.
Read Complete AnalysesI care not what the sailors say: All those dreadful thunder-stones, All that storm that blots the day Can but show that Heaven yawns; Great Europa played the fool That changed a lover for a bull. Fol de rol, fol de rol. To round that shell's elaborate whorl, Adorning every secret track With the delicate mother-of-pearl, Made the joints of Heaven crack: So never hang your heart upon A roaring, ranting journeyman. Fol de rol, fol de rol.
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