was epileptic. Families kept the condition secret and sufferers were not to marry, a fact that makes the dilemma of telling and withholding information in her poetry take on a new layer of meaning: "If What we could--were what we would--/Criterion--be small--/It is the Ultimate of Talk--/The impotence to Tell--"Her condition was never divulged to her suitors, which explains how Dickinson could get to the brink of marriage but stop short of leaving the family home.
from Olivia Cole: Financial Times: Lives Like Loaded Guns
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The poems' editor Jenny Swann, however, gives a warning about the poetic approach to Valentine's Day, citing a flirty passage from Pride and Prejudice. "I wonder who first discovered the efficacy of poetry in driving away love!" teases Elizabeth Bennet.
She has a point. It was French novelist Henry de Montherlant who first came up with the adage: "Happiness writes white, it doesn't show up on the page." Love poetry tends not to be euphoric: it is usually troubled, or tinged with sadness.
from Olivia Cole: London Evening Standard: If you need love poetry, Byron's the perfect valentine
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