dublinka

I've been reading quite a bit of Gas Light & Coke by Fergus Allen recently. One poem in particular has been intriguing me. Bougainvillea, tells the story of how the naturalist Philibert Commerçon found and proposed the name of the eponymous flower, as the frigate La Boudeuse circumnavigated the globe. Now without going into details, let me say that he names it after the captain Louis Antoine de Bougainville out of expediency. It's an appropriate tale from Allen, a former civil servant (First civil service commissioner in the British civil service actually), because it hints at the kind or unrecognised achievements by the poet, that such a post must surely have entailed. But there is a second story here. At least I suspect there is. La Boudeuse you see was famous for another passenger. A Frenchwoman, Jeanne Baré. Needing to exit France to extricate herself from financial difficulties, she artfully disguised herself as a man (Jean Baré ) and enlisted as valet, mistress, and assistant to Commerçon. Doing so, she managed to stay ‘hidden’ on the ship for most of the voyage, only being betrayed in the end by some over excited Tahitians. The riddle then, for those of you who like such a thing, is to find in the poem, traces of Jeanne Baré. Let me say firstly, it’s not at all obvious that she is in the poem. The poet winks but he does not nudge. The best we can hope for (I think!) is in the following lines:

And tiny flowers, easily overlooked
By retinas punch-drunk with so much colour-
Miniature daisy-faced things, like the eyes,
Of mock-innocent actresses and vamps,
For whom the dazzle equalled a disguise.

I can't quite put my finger on it, but there seems to be a touch of Graham Green about the man. All the better I say. Buy it even just for this fascinating poem.

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