A Young Widow, Edwin Killingworth Johnson

KEITH JACKA  is the author of “English Girls,” a series of five poems. Here is “Arundel,” one of these poems and the first to be published here. The others will appear shortly. Mr. Jacka, who lives in London, is a reader of this site. 

ARUNDEL

Arundel the kindly girl. She knew
How to be both Wife and Mother; true
To her vows. Not one to ruminate and fret,
Or turn aside to nurse some old regret.

Contented with her busy life, minding
All the tasks of Hearth and Home, binding
Up the hurts, wiping away the tears,
And shielding all her brood from nameless fears.

O Arundel, poor Arundel; she’s lost
Her man: John Penruddock, a Royalist,
Caught by Cromwell’s Boys. They took him alive,
Hanged him high in Sixteen Fifty Five.

Poor Arundel the loving Wife. She wrote
A letter to her dear, a final note,
A letter to the one who mattered most,
Against his final fading to a ghost.

A flood of tears assails her sober reason;
But yet she must not yield. It would be treason
To the little ones … must not be left
By Mother, though the Wife is full bereft.

O Arundel, poor Arundel; her man
Is gone; lost and gone forever. He can
No longer reach and hold her in his arms,
Make her smile, safe against all harms.

May the third, eleven o’clock at night;
No act of hers can bring him to her sight.
Next morn he’ll sleep alone in his last cold bed
Never again to be disquieted;
Never again, O never again to be disquieted.

                             — Keith Jacka

NOTES: 

(a) Identity

Arundel Penruddock was the wife of John Penruddock of Wiltshire, and the mother of several children by him. Her husband was a Royalist, and the leader of an unsuccessful insurrection (against Cromwell) in the South West of England. There is extant the letter written to him, as indicated.

(c) Syllables

Three syllables: A/run/del

(d) Stress

Stress on first and third syllables: ‘A/run/’del

(e) Pronunciation

Short ‘A’, as in ‘Anne.’

(f) Metre

Five stresses per line.

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