Cole Porter — is he the 20th century's most under-rated poet? His entertaining eclecticism, verbal acrobatics and focus on romantic comedy tempt us to dismiss him as a dazzling lightweight. But they're all techniques Shakespeare used to devastating effect on the Elizabethan stage.
I'm biased to rate Porter highly, because beneath the fun is a keen appreciation of the mechanics of romantic illusion. In Anything Goes the restrained English peer, Lord Evelyne Oakley, fantasises in "The Gypsy in Me" about how finding his true love will reveal the repressed side of his character:
When I'm there in that dream
with the one in the world I worship
passionately
In the moment supreme
will be shown the unknown
gypsy in me!
As Robertson Davies wrote, We love the people who make us whole. Or, as the Theory of Romance more prosaically puts it, we fall in love with people who seem to have access to the life we don't know how to live.
Posted by SJT at March 28, 2004 01:06 PMsee also roger scruton's latest book on tristan and erotic love. on my list ..
Posted by: stevan apter at March 28, 2004 03:15 PM
Did you read Scruton's "Sexual Desire" -- a wonderfully gallant book challenging present sexual mores?
Posted by: sjt at April 10, 2004 07:11 PM
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