Edward Gordon Craig

Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966), English theatrical designer and director.

Poem written for Isadora, which he never published. It was discovered and published after his death in Steegmuller, Francis: "Your Isadora". The love story of Isadora Duncan and Gordon Craig. New York, Macmillan, 1974. Another version is translated from the German by George Amberg and published in Magriel, Paul: Isadora Duncan. New York, Holt, 1947. Various drawings.

 

 

"People called her a great artist - a Greek goddess - but she was nothing of the kind. She was something quite different from anyone and anything else."  

 

Introduction

Much Noise, and a deep Unrest

- Sadness and Discord -

Is this in any way the final estimate of the whole?

- The Reality?

Is it then so certain that Life is made up

   of four Absurdities?

Is it not far more certain that life is made up of

Four Beauties-

- of Calmness - Joy - Harmony -

Rhythm - the truest Reality.

And what of the expression of all this - Art?

Must Pandemonium and Ugliness

ever stand for Strength?

- Must Restlessness be made the Symbol of Life?

- Must a noisy and discordant Sadness spread

itself over the Loveliness of all?

If there are questions, I am not one of the Questioners. -

I have no doubt whatever -

I see Calmness and Beauty both the Strong and the Sweet

advancing now with perfect ease -

All makes way for this spirit -

Nothing can hinder it.

Three marks of a pencil, or three hundred

It is ever the same Picture -

A note sounded, or a fall of notes,

It is the same Song. -

A step, or a hundred steps

It is the same Dance. -

Something put down -

a Record -

Something uttered on that divine theme understood

so easily, and only with ease -

that theme which commences

“I AM HAPPY............................”

and which ends in

“............................it is Beautiful”

This is the theme she dances -

Not yet has she depicted a Gloom or a Sorrow unbearable -

For ever it seems Sunlight with her -

The little Shadows themselves are found out 

and move away as she passes -

This is the great power.

She comes of the lovely family -

The great Companions -

That Conquering Race which has held up the

World so that it might spin without difficulty.

- The courageous Giants

- the Preservers of Beauty

- the Answerers of all Riddles.