As a spinster at a time when such women seemed to count for little, from the late 1930s to her death in 1980, Barbara mostly wrote about other spinsters, homely women in their late-30s to mid-60s who harbor gentle longings for the vicar (or curate or rector) but ultimately find they don't really need anything they don't have.
Sometimes Mr. Maw's score is tellingly understated, as when Nathan rescues the weak, anemic Sophie after a fainting spell in the library and takes her home, where he cooks a high-in-iron meal of calf's liver and leeks as they tentatively exchange bits of their pasts in music of gentle, lyrical longing, tweaked with dissonance to suggest that there are more painful things they do not share.
This early work is that of a young man still coming to terms with his sexuality and politics; there is a gentle, tentative longing here that would border on the saccharine were the poet not so evidently and deeply invested in every line.
We loved her for that, as we loved the books for their tenderness, for their gentle exploration of longing and the secret lives we all have.
Here are two gentle, civilised men, both longing to be left alone to write fiction, forced into opposite sides of a vile conflict.Mr Shehadeh chronicles day-to-day life in Ramallah in April 2002, the month that the city, along with other West Bank towns, was invaded and occupied by the Israeli army in retaliation for the Passover bombing in Netanya.
He continued by praising Depp's performance stating, "Depp artfully expresses the fierce longing in gentle Edward; it's a terrific performance" and the "engulfing score" from Danny Elfman.
It seemed to be about first love, and collected its teenage longings into gentle, danceable and occasionally twee pop.
There is a lot of such gentle patriotism, along with pastoral longing and romping sexuality, since Dryden's song texts are full of unashamed Restoration ardor: "Let not youth fly away without contenting; Age will come time enough for repenting," or "Sound a parley, ye fair, and surrender," or "Come, come naked in for we are so," sung by two Rhine Maiden-like river sirens.
Longing for retribution is longing for retribution.
She will recall this touch, this curious, gentle, tingling pressure, with an addled mixture of scorn and longing, for many years to come.
