Madeline’s Message
Vermont’s Quiet Muse: (Landscape and Memory in Lady Madeline Rose’s Work)
Vermont’s Quiet Muse:
(Landscape and Memory in Lady Madeline Rose’s Work)
Lady Madeline’s poetry exists in the quiet beauty of Vermont’s Lake Champlain Islands where she lives and writes. Her poetic voice draws the reader into her meditations on the land and her observations of the longer rhythms of the seasons, the light over the water, and the stillness of a moment at dawn. The landscapes she evokes are more than a setting; they speak to the feelings of the speaker, creating a sense of connection and contemplation for the reader.
Rose hones in again, and again, on familiar scenes; a shoreline, a field, a path through trees; which allows the reader to interrogate and re-consider the pang of the same place over different moments in time.
This repetition helps create a continuum between where a memory lives and the experiences being uncovered in which a stronger reflective quality occurs. Our memories tell us that a sense of place matters for the moments that lived there. Likewise, the natural world functions as a quiet witness, archiving the place and also a life with its joys and sorrows.
A Visual and Tactile Sensibility
Rose’s training in photography heightens her attention to detail, which is reflected in the precision of her images. Her poems feel like still photographs (not unlike a James Wright poem), and she captures a single frame full of meaning.
Even when she is making jewelry, there is another layer of texture. For example, Maple and fragile materials going into jewelry making require a discipline of focus and attention, which has translations in poetry.
Photography teaches Rose how to hold a frame; jewelry making teaches full and complete respect for material; poetry gives language to what she witnesses and feels in all states of being. All three practices create a complex industrial ecosystem, where each type of creative expression overlaps, supports and even compliments the others.
Universal Resonance
Though her work is deeply tied to Vermont, it speaks to universal human experiences — belonging, longing, memory, and change. The themes she examines are relatable to readers everywhere. A shoreline might remind one reader of summers at a childhood lake, while a winter morning might recall another’s memories of quiet snowfalls. Rose’s poetry reminds us of the close connection between memory and landscape by appealing to a universal human nostalgia.
Her writing inspires readers to find meaning in their own surroundings. There are always locations—parks, gardens, roads, even windows—that have histories worth honoring, even if one does not live close to Lake Champlain. Rose’s poetry turns into a call to go back and give these places a voice.
Spend some time reading Love, Friendship & Family by Lady Madeline Rose and see how her poems use the serene beauty of a location to reflect your own feelings and memories.