This Friday’s Fun Photo post features a tattered, much-loved small book, The May Queen by Alfred Lord Tennyson, owned by Jean Zungola, a friend from one of the writers’ groups I belong to. Jean’s mother used to read this poem to her and her sister when they were children, and Jean inherited the sentimental keepsake when her mother died.
Look at the smudges and creases suggesting scores, maybe hundreds, of readings. Look at the small tears and taped sections revealing that it has been pleasing its readers for many a year.
Best of all, look at the handmade dust jacket added to protect it not only from physical damage, but from theft! It warns would-be thieves, presumably in the family, to “Leave this book alone. Replace where found……or else.” That protective message sums up the book’s value to Jean and her family.
For those of you who know the poem and might be wondering: Yes, this version that the little girls loved so much has the full poem including the narrator’s death at the end.
