Fools There Were

Le Vampire
We seem to have lost something along the way. Back in the early 1900s, the picture, above, by Philip Burne-Jones, inspired Rudyard Kipling to write this poem.

The Vampire
A fool there was and he made his prayer
(Even as you or I!)
To a rag and a bone and a hank of hair,
(We called her the woman who did not care),
But the fool he called her his lady fair--
(Even as you or I!)

Oh, the years we waste and the tears we waste,
And the work of our head and hand
Belong to the woman who did not know
(And now we know that she never could know)
And did not understand!

A fool there was and his goods he spent,
(Even as you or I!)
Honour and faith and a sure intent
(And it wasn't the least what the lady meant),
But a fool must follow his natural bent
(Even as you or I!)

Oh, the toil we lost and the spoil we lost
And the excellent things we planned
Belong to the woman who didn't know why
(And now we know that she never knew why)
And did not understand!

The fool was stripped to his foolish hide,
(Even as you or I!)
Which she might have seen when she threw him aside--
(But it isn't on record the lady tried)
So some of him lived but the most of him died--
(Even as you or I!)

``And it isn't the shame and it isn't the blame
That stings like a white-hot brand--
It's coming to know that she never knew why
(Seeing, at last, she could never know why)
And never could understand!''

This inspired Porter Emerson Browne to write a play, A Fool There Was, which was later made into a movie of the same name.
Nowadays we have books & comic books made into movies. Toys are made of cartoons and cartoons are made of toys. In our modern society, plays, poems and paintings have pretty much mothing in common. OK, their first letters... There is a creative & complementary cross discipline thing going on there, but that doesn't exist in converting an "asset" from one media to another. That's pretty much just "re-purposing". It's not exactly on the same intellectual plane.
Do teachers in schools promote this kind of exercise? It seems we are slaves to motion & dialogue. Have we become John Schuyler?
You can D/L A Fool There Was here.