During the height of the snowstorm that buried us over the weekend, I had to drive my son to an important hockey game. We were playing an away game at an arena in a community about twenty-five minutes away when the weather is clear and the roads are dry. The trip Saturday took almost an hour. The arena is on the outskirts of this particular city with open fields around it. There are few structures to slow the raging winds as they race across the parking lot. When the game was over, we headed out to the vehicle in the parking lot. We had difficulty seeing. It was a blizzard with almost whiteout conditions. It would not be difficult to lose your way in a storm like this. The road surface was horrendous with blowing and drifting snow. I would not want to have been out on any of the major highways traveling any great distance that day. We saw no pedestrians, either. It was a day that was not fit for man, woman nor beast…
Driving home through the blizzard, I was reminded of a poem that I posted in my blog on January 20th, the Eve of St. Agnes’ Day. It was a long poem by John Keats about two people who fell in love “against the strength of the fates,” as Sara Teasdalesaid in one of her poems. Their families were involved in a long, bitter feud. Both groups were mortal enemies, and yet a member from each clan somehow transcended the barriers erected by the long-running battle. Somehow they met and found something even more powerful than hate–love.
The poem details the magic that could be performed on that night in order that a young woman could see her intended in her dreams. The poem in my blog details the magic that could be performed on that one night. It is a ritual similar to one that could be done on the eve of St. Valentine’s Day. While the young woman is preparing to retire for the night, she could also do a little magic to see the face of her one true love in a dream. The young man in the Keats poem somehow finds his way into the castle and stealthily makes his way past the guards on duty. He solicits the help of a handmaiden to gain access into the chamber of his beloved. His intended wakes and sees her dream vision before her. Plans are hastily drawn up to elope. They carefully make their way back out of the fortress and into a blizzard. … They were never seen again. The end of the poem leaves their fate up to the imagination of the reader.
Today is the wedding anniversary of William Shakespeare’s most famous lovers detailed in his classic play, Romeo and Juliet. He tells us that it was on March 11th, 1302, that these two tragic figures were married. Their story was similar to that of the lovers in Keats‘ drama, in the sense that they were from warring families. Again, we are led to believe that love is far stronger than the hatred between these two rival families. Romeo took whatever means at his disposal to see the object of his desire.
Early in the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Romeo climbs over the orchard wall and speaks with Juliet who is on her balcony. She says: “The orchard walls are high, and hard to climb; / And the place death, considering who thou art, / If any of my kinsmen find thee here.” To which Romeo replies: “With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls; / For stony limits cannot hold love out: / And what love can do, that dares love attempt; / Therefore, thy kinsmen are no stop to me.” Love which is forbidden by others usually finds a way to fulfill its longing.
Which brings me to one other story. Its setting was again a howling winter storm. The tale was called The Lost Lovers of Pisgah Mountain. It was included in the collection, Great Mysteries: Ghosts by Robert Jackson–no relation. It is a Quintet Book published in 1992 by Smithmark Publishers Inc. Its ISBN is 0-8317-9055-5. I don’t know if this book is still available to be ordered.
The setting for the story is December in North Carolina at the turn of the past century. Robert Jackson writes the story “…would not be out of place in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.”
The two lovers were Mary Stratton and Jim Robinson. Her father did everything he could to prevent the two from seeing each other, but love is a powerful force, as we’ve already seen. As a last resort, the father did something that he would regret for the rest of his life. He told the revenue men that Jim was operating a still making liquor or moonshine. The revenue men found the still and began to take it apart when Jim happened to come on the scene. A fight ensued and one of the revenue men was shot by Robinson. Jim became a hunted man from that moment forward.
In the Keats poem, the young man solicits the help of a handmaiden. In this mountain tale, Robinson sought help from a widow who had been his mother’s friend. He begged her to bring the preacher so that he and Mary could be married before fleeing the mountain for good. He knew he would be on the run from the authorities for the rest of his life, but wanted Mary to be his wife in order that they might escape together. The widow reluctantly agreed to his plan, and the two were married by a preacher who asked few if any questions. As Jackson tells us, Mary was frightened because word was getting around about what Jim had done. Dogs could be heard coming up the path to the cabin as the ceremony was finished. The young couple made their escape through a back door and ran into the woods while the storm raged about them. I get the sense that their tracks were covered up by the falling snow. The man-hunt for the two of them continued for a few more days, “until the depth of snow made it impossible to carry on the search,” as writer Robert Jackson said.
They were never seen again…
It is unknown if they made it safely down the mountain in the blinding snow. Folks were led to believe that maybe they didn’t. Her father tried everything he could to find word of their whereabouts, but he eventually died, heartbroken. Robert Jackson writes: “But every year, so the mountain folk say, at the time of the first snowfall, the shades of a man and woman appear on the mountainside where Jim and Mary vanished in the blizzard; she is standing, he kneeling at her feet, holding her hand as though proclaiming his love-or, perhaps, begging her forgiveness for having taken her to her death in the frozen wilderness.”
Love may be a powerful force, but it can bring unimaginable consequences to those who fall under its spell. Romeo and Juliet knew this only too well. We’re not sure if Keats‘ lovers were successful in their bid for freedom and a fresh start. One can only imagine they were…
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Don Jackson
