Featured Poem: Overheard on a Saltmarsh by Harold Monro
I read this poem last week at care home for people suffering with dementia and we had a wonderful discussion from it. One lady picked up on the idea of greed immediately and even related it to her own feelings of desire for things that dont belong to her, as well as the feeling of owning something precious.
It is a comfort in a way. You can look at it and say, Its mine. Its mine. There is comfort in that.
Another lady went on to relate it to the big things she has wanted in her life:
A partner a really good looking fellow. And a nice place to come back to at the end of the day, to call home.
I was quite shocked to get all of that from a poem about a fight between a nymph and a goblin!
Overheard on a Saltmarsh
Nymph, nymph, what are your beads?
Green glass, goblin. Why do you stare at them?
Give them me.
No.
Give them me. Give them me.
No.
Then I will howl all night in the reeds,
Lie in the mud and howl for them.
Goblin, why do you love them so?
They are better than stars or water,
Better than voices of winds that sing,
Better than any man’s fair daughter,
Your green glass beads on a silver ring.
Hush, I stole them out of the moon.
Give me your beads, I want them.
No.
I will howl in the deep lagoon
For your green glass beads, I love them so.
Give them me. Give them.
No.
- Harold Monro (1879 – 1932)
Dear Jen,
My mother used to recite this poem to us when we were children and it always fascinated me. My gran had a necklace of glass beads, green and black with streaks of gold, that I was convinced were the nymph’s beads and that I always begged to get out from her dressing table drawer, to feel how cold and icy they were. I never wear them without thinking of this poem and I’ve been looking for the full words from it for years, because I could only remember fragments. Thank you.
I’m teaching this poem to Hong Kong children for a speech festival at the moment. It’s very old fashioned, and I don’t think it’s suitable for ESL speakers (I didnt choose the poem!)
But it’s fascinating to see how the poem is interpreted online.
My Mother also used to recite this poem to me as a child, and I still have a mental image of the Goblin pleading and threatening for the beads. Like Kath Baker I only remembered fragments until I mentioned it to an elderly aunt and she knew the author straight away.
Even now if I see a green glass necklace or trinket it reminds me of this poem and I wonder what happened after the nymph said no!
I remember reading this poem with my mother when I was a little girl. I am surprised that I still know all the words. Thank you for posting such a treasure.
This is my favourite poem, and probably the first one that took my fancy.
It was in a text book in the school curriculum in England in the late 70′s /80′s
I was fascinated by the goblin and his relentlessness.
I always relate it to J R R Tolkien, probably linking it with Gollums desire for the ring.
I also find that there’s machismo tension akin to that of the early days of a relationship and ‘stealing’ that first kiss or other favours from a resolute and yet teasing maiden.
I enjoyed all the comments.
Thank you for featuring this poem.