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On a Grey Thread
On a Grey Thread (1923) is the debut poetry collection of Elsa Gidlow. Written while the poet was living in New York, On a Grey Thread is a groundbreaking work of poetry, the first in North American history to openly express lesbian desire. Both personal and political, Gidlow's poems express the poet's complex feelings as a young woman whose political ideology and sexual identity ran counter to the traditional values of her time.
Opening her collection with "The Grey Thread," Gidlow expresses herself with ornamental imagery, decorating her drab existence with the colorful beads of her personal identity: "My life is a grey thread, / A thin grey stretched out thread, / And when I trace its course, I moan: / How dull! How dead! // But I have gay beads. / A pale one to begin, / A blue one for my painted dreams, / And one for sin, / Gold with coiled marks, / Like a snake's skin." Employing the double meaning of "gay," offering a brief erotic "moan" on the precipice of enjambment, Gidlow stretches her stanza to its sinful conclusion, recalling Eve's temptation in the Garden of Eden. Having announced herself as a poet whose lines work against the dullness of her day, Gidlow--in "Youth"--is free to not only reveal what she wants from life, but to dare to take it: "Living is crusted with lies. / I want life naked, / Laughing and young. / Not fettered, not tamed, / But life unashamed, / With the cry of Desire on her tongue."
Opening her collection with "The Grey Thread," Gidlow expresses herself with ornamental imagery, decorating her drab existence with the colorful beads of her personal identity: "My life is a grey thread, / A thin grey stretched out thread, / And when I trace its course, I moan: / How dull! How dead! // But I have gay beads. / A pale one to begin, / A blue one for my painted dreams, / And one for sin, / Gold with coiled marks, / Like a snake's skin." Employing the double meaning of "gay," offering a brief erotic "moan" on the precipice of enjambment, Gidlow stretches her stanza to its sinful conclusion, recalling Eve's temptation in the Garden of Eden. Having announced herself as a poet whose lines work against the dullness of her day, Gidlow--in "Youth"--is free to not only reveal what she wants from life, but to dare to take it: "Living is crusted with lies. / I want life naked, / Laughing and young. / Not fettered, not tamed, / But life unashamed, / With the cry of Desire on her tongue."
First published January 1, 1923
About the author
Elsa Gidlow
8 books26 followersElsa Gidlow (29 December 1898 – 8 June 1986) was a poet, who in 1923 published the first volume of openly lesbian love poetry in the United States, On a Grey Thread. She promoted alternative spiritualities including Buddhism and Goddess Worship. In the 1940s she founded a rural retreat center, the Druid Heights Artists Retreat, in Marin County, California. She lived there until her death in 1986. Other residents at Druid Heights have included well-known figures such as her close friend Alan Watts and feminist theorist Catharine MacKinnon.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 19, 2019
I knew nothing about this auther when I started reading this. I picked it up for free off a public domain websigt. It however is wonderful. Lesbian poetry from 1923 it is way ahead of its time and wonderful.
August 19, 2023
Elsa Gidlow you brilliant lesbian PLAYER!
Youth: “Living is crusted with lies. I want life naked, Laughing and young. Not fettered, not tamed, But life unashamed, With the cry of Desire on her tongue.”
Futility: “Under all the beauty that I know, All the vital dreams, Sharp loveliness, Under the hair, the lips of laughter, The dusk-dim eyes of pain, Lurks the single thing I fear, Hard-mouthed, implacable-eyed, The monster, The satyr-thing, futility.”
Didn’t pull quotes from these but I really liked “I Must be Far” on page 29 and “This is Not Love” on page 45, “Mnasidika” on 59, “ Chance” on 71. Lovely writing.
“Episode” on page 43 is so undeniably gay
Experience: “Now you are gone I kiss your dented pillow and wonder if it hungers like my breast for the dear head we have both held in rest. I said once: Love alone cannot assuage my thirst, my hunger, love has no reply for that wild questioning, for this fierce cry. I said: there is no kiss that can feed me now. Perhaps love is life’s flower: I seek the root. Yea, I have loved and love is the dead sea fruit. Yet I lie here and kiss your dented pillow, a trembling girl who loves your overmuch — A harp in anguish for the players touch.”
The Artist: “Love has betrayed us enough with its treacherous wonder: Let us go now while we ache with magic or what is the gain? Art is our one immortality, all we may win from the gods in exchange for our labor and pain.”
Philosophy: “Since we must soon be fed as honey and new bread to ever-hungry Death: O, love me very sweet and kiss me very long and let us use our breath for song. Nothing else endures overlong.”
Of a Certain Friendship on page 57 is OUCH (positive) if you have lost a friend
Of a Certain Friendship:
“Odd how you entered my house quietly, quietly left again. While you stayed you ate at my table, slept in my bed. There was much sweetness, yet little was done, little said. After you left there was pain, now there is no more pain. But the door of a certain room in my house will always be shut. Your fork, your plate, the glass you drank from, the music you played, are in that room with the pillow where last your head was laid. And there is one place in my garden where it’s best that I set no foot.”
Youth: “Living is crusted with lies. I want life naked, Laughing and young. Not fettered, not tamed, But life unashamed, With the cry of Desire on her tongue.”
Futility: “Under all the beauty that I know, All the vital dreams, Sharp loveliness, Under the hair, the lips of laughter, The dusk-dim eyes of pain, Lurks the single thing I fear, Hard-mouthed, implacable-eyed, The monster, The satyr-thing, futility.”
Didn’t pull quotes from these but I really liked “I Must be Far” on page 29 and “This is Not Love” on page 45, “Mnasidika” on 59, “ Chance” on 71. Lovely writing.
“Episode” on page 43 is so undeniably gay
Experience: “Now you are gone I kiss your dented pillow and wonder if it hungers like my breast for the dear head we have both held in rest. I said once: Love alone cannot assuage my thirst, my hunger, love has no reply for that wild questioning, for this fierce cry. I said: there is no kiss that can feed me now. Perhaps love is life’s flower: I seek the root. Yea, I have loved and love is the dead sea fruit. Yet I lie here and kiss your dented pillow, a trembling girl who loves your overmuch — A harp in anguish for the players touch.”
The Artist: “Love has betrayed us enough with its treacherous wonder: Let us go now while we ache with magic or what is the gain? Art is our one immortality, all we may win from the gods in exchange for our labor and pain.”
Philosophy: “Since we must soon be fed as honey and new bread to ever-hungry Death: O, love me very sweet and kiss me very long and let us use our breath for song. Nothing else endures overlong.”
Of a Certain Friendship on page 57 is OUCH (positive) if you have lost a friend
Of a Certain Friendship:
“Odd how you entered my house quietly, quietly left again. While you stayed you ate at my table, slept in my bed. There was much sweetness, yet little was done, little said. After you left there was pain, now there is no more pain. But the door of a certain room in my house will always be shut. Your fork, your plate, the glass you drank from, the music you played, are in that room with the pillow where last your head was laid. And there is one place in my garden where it’s best that I set no foot.”
January 3, 2023
I accept the timeless blight
Of crawling like a worm with unclean things.
A bleeding-heart collection of poetry by a woman who knows that real love has stakes. She relishes in sin, welcomes the pain of discovery, knows that to expand your capacity for sorrow and hurt is to expand your capacity for joy. It’s a bold affirmation of queerness, particularly bold for being published originally in 1920. There’s all the drama and self-righteousness that’s unique to artists, and not all of the poems hit the mark for me. But I am very fond of the motto underlying this collection: to live fully is to hurt, and that will never stop being worth it.
November 17, 2022
I do not have many thoughts about this to be honest. Like any collection, there were some stronger than others, but I do think this collection had its standout moments. I don't know if I'll return to this one at any point, but I enjoyed it.
June 16, 2022
Get my book club / reading group discussion guide for this book.
This was so enjoyable, I sent a screenshot of one of the poems to one of my friends. That's not a thing I do...ever.
Check out my full review.
This was so enjoyable, I sent a screenshot of one of the poems to one of my friends. That's not a thing I do...ever.
Check out my full review.
February 1, 2023
I am completely obsessed with Elsa and this book!! Best poetry collection I swear like lesbian poetry just keeps me GOING and these are all so captivating and perfect. I did a history assignment on Elsa Gidlow a couple years ago and thank god I did because I never would’ve found this otherwise.. it’s like $8 on amazon BUY IT!! I also highly recommend this poetry to any Taylor Swift fans🤭 inspiration I sense? Maybe..🫣
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews