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7.4.2 Poetry.
THE ONES THAT I WORSHIP
There are living among(st) two dutiful daughters Of a man who possesses two beautiful daughters The most glorious beings in creation; They'd be the pride and joy of any nation.
You cannot know, nor (yet) try to guess, The sweet soothingness of their caress. The outstanding genius of this pair Is understood by few, they are so rare.
Compared with these two, every man is a fool. The world is most honoured that they should deign to rule, And above us these Goddesses reign on high.
I worship the power of these lovely two With that adoring love known to so few. 'Tis indeed a miracle, one must feel, That two such heavenly creatures are real.
Both sets of eyes, though different far, hold many mysteries strange. Impassively they watch the race of man decay and change. Hatred burning bright in the brown eyes, with enemies for fuel, Icy scorn glitters in the grey eyes, contemptuous and cruel.
Why are men such fools they will not realize The wisdom that is hidden behind those strange eyes? And these wonderful people are you and I.
Pauline Yvonne Parker, 1953. (back of diary)
Note that the punctuation of this version is partly speculative, and is based on a version published in contemporary news articles, on the lyrical content and the known grammatical precision of PYP's writing [G&L]. The punctuation, and a few words, do not match the (largely unpunctuated) version obtained from the trial transcript (which is a secondhand verbal record, after all), or the version transcribed by Medlicott in his paper, although Medlicott noted that 'Goddesses' was capitalized whereas 'heavenly creatures' was not. All published versions approximately contemporary with the case include the term "heavenly creatures." There have been some recent press reports suggesting that the term did not appear in Pauline Parker's writings. [mcw,jp]
See Medlicott's article for his analysis of this poem, and also for comments by PYP and JMH made to Medlicott concerning the poem in response to his questions. Medlicott notes that both girls treated him with open contempt [JMH: "You do think, don't you?"] so their comments to him about "The Ones That I Worship" may have to be taken with a pinch of salt.
