Poem 396
Another song from The Nightdress … this is a duet between Constance’s older sisters Elizabeth and Mary Anne who are thrown into a panic by the arrival of Inspector Whicher who wants to question everyone in the house about the night of the murder … the sisters are comical characters, semi-hysterical at the best of times, referred to as a ‘two-headed cow’ by their stepmother Mary Pratt, they are given to flapping about and speaking as if they’re one person, finishing each other’s sentences … this reaches an apogee with this song in which, trying to get their story straight, they increasingly imagine they’ve heard and seen things they haven’t to the point where they don’t even trust themselves … so the song is about false memories and paranoia breeding in an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust that permeates the closed in-turned world of this Victorian family which is already riddled with scandals and secrets …
… I like the rhythms of this … you have to imagine the two sisters rattling lines back and forth, tumbling over each other, topping each other as the wild horses of their imaginations run away with them … nice too how it grows from them imagining hearing the crime being committed to glimpsing it then to embodying it – auditory, visual then somatic memory (in this case false memory) … plus the fact that their instinct tells them the murderer is female (ie. wearing a nightdress) and that there was more than one malefactor (in all probability Constance convinced her younger brother William to aid in the murder) …
Are We Sure?
Who could do it sister hate so much exquisite cruelty with a delicate touch who could do it sister who would know was it someone in the house struck that blow that can't be so no outsider would know where to go ... that night past midnight I thought I heard the dog bark did I dream the creak of the drawing room shutters scratch match feet path whisper, whistle razor gristle sort of drip soft thump splash of pump in the yard silence ... the rustle of a nightdress pulled over a head silence ... then I slept dreamlessly I slept so peacefully I slept the sleep of the dead Who among us sister holds the key who hid their hideous and sly intention we didn't see or did we Mary Anne well Lizzie now you mention ... did something wake me did I stand by the window glimpse in the moonlight shadowed figures down below bundle candle blade gleam white and red still in bed no we weren't that night silver white and in the white red blindness ... pale flash of a nightdress pulled over a head blindness ... then I slept peacefully I slept so dreamlessly I slept the sleep of the dead I've a dreadful presentiment who could know so much whom can we trust who let resentment fester into spite sister into such rage and disgust when you put it like that Lizzie dear when you think about it obvious ... we could have done it sister hush you hush! we could have done it are we sure it wasn't us I know where the razor's kept I know how to get it right next to the lather in father's case no one any wiser it's easy to replace it we hate that Mary Pratt we might as well face it creeping to the nursery with murderous intent bundling out the back door the sleeping innocent the privy part of it sharp but short all done in the dark don't give it a thought oblivious oblivion sleeping peacefully sated of some terrible lust ... we could have done it sister motive and means we could have done it our position of trust we could have done it sister are we sure are we absolutely sure it wasn't us?