Sophia

 SOPHIA AND SOPHIA AND SOPHIA

Sophia, and Sophia, and Sophia.

My love. Before my tale of twisting folk,

before joke turned to wound and wound to joke,

before the Merry Andrew's puppet plays,

before night Mazard, down and up and maze,

before the games with cash and with desire,

I was found, a breathing baby in a bed.

I played in many beds, found you, and wed.

This poem was my contribution to the project '26 orphans', which the writers' group 26 Characters mounted in the autumn of 2022, in collaboration with the Foundling Museum. Participants were invited to choose a famous orphan from a list and write in the orphan's persona. 

My choice was Tom Jones, the hero of Henry Fielding's 1749 novel of that name. For those not familiar with the novel, which I read for the first time in pursuit of this project, I can summarise it thus:

"Foundling Tom is set on winning the hand of Sophia. After a trail of comic adventures, misadventures, blunders and crimes between Somerset and London, they marry."

I had better say that the poem owes much to editorial suggestions by Wendy Jones.  I read the poem to a small gathering in the museum in October 2022, and it seemed to go down well.