E-text prepared by Ruth Hart
THE HOURS OF FIAMMETTA
A SONNET SEQUENCE
BY
RACHEL ANNAND TAYLOR
"Thou which lov'st to be
Subtle to plague thyself"—
LONDON:
ELKIN MATHEWS, VIGO STREET
MCMX
The "Epilogue of the Dreaming Women" is reprinted by
permission of the "English Review."
PREFACE
There are two great traditions of womanhood. One presents the Madonna brooding over the mystery of motherhood; the other, more confusedly, tells of the acolyte, the priestess, the clairvoyante of the unknown gods. This latter exists complete in herself, a personality as definite and as significant as a symbol. She is behind all the processes of art, though she rarely becomes a conscious artist, except in delicate and impassioned modes of living. Indeed, matters are cruelly complicated for her if the entanglements of destiny drag her forward into the deliberate aesthetic effort. Strange, wistful, bitter and sweet, she troubles and quickens the soul of man, as earthly or as heavenly lover redeeming him from the spiritual sloth which is more to be dreaded than any kind of pain.