Ludwig Uhland's mysterious poem found at the beginning of the chapter 46 “Once and now” in “North and South” by Elizabeth Gaskell.

I'm currently reading “North and South”, very enjoyable novel I have to said, but what caught my attention is how every chapter starts with a piece of poetry or a quotation from someone (like Rollo, Duke of Normandy, at chapter 20 “Men and Gentlemen”) as a foreshadowing. Through my lecture is not that advanced, I found peeking around a couple of verses that I felt deep. The author is the German Romantic poet Ludwig Uhland, but I couldn’t find more on the extract of poetry given by Gaskell as a prologue of the chapter 46 "Once and now".

Once and now

So on those happy days of yore
Oft as I dare to dwell once more,
Still must I miss the friends so tried,
Whom Death has severed from my side.

But ever when true friendship binds,
Spirit it is that spirit finds;
In spirit then our bliss we found,
In spirit yet to them I'm bound.

UHLAND

In North and South we follow Margaret Hale's journey through loss. Spoiler ahead.

She loses her life at south due to circumstances out of her control. A life that for she, was the natural course of her existence, but not less pleasant and tranquil. There, her firsts mournings. I use the plural because with the depart from the south and the new life in the north, comes the woe for the entire family: Economic problems are only the beginning for sickness, first an unwellness in the soul that later creeps unto the flesh. And there she is Margaret, in the middle of an afflicted family, learning by herself to be the emotional support for her parents. A role that demands a living of her gief and fears alone. Margaret is isolated both from her surroundings (as she cannot adapt to the life in the north) and from her loved ones.

In the north, Margaret is constantly faced with lack: beyond the economic lack of her family and it's consequences, outside, in the hostile city of Milton, she sees the lack of it's people in material terms and in human qualities such as faith, hope, empathy and connection. As the novel progress she, through the interaction with characters like Bessy and Nicholas Higgins, start to find these human qualities in a broader spectrum. The relation with Mr. Thornton is a bit more complicated in this aspect, but well, he is the romantic interest after all.

Gaskell was a genious in her explorations of the inner life of her characters. We spent a great deal inside of Margaret's head in her highs and lows. We are witness of her endurance and growth. Coming back to the topic of loss, Margaret has to live through the death of her best friend Bessy, her parents, the depart from her brother in exile and the distancing with Thornton. Grief and isolation ravels and unravels but it comes with this growth already mentioned and the strenghthen of Margaret's relations. I think all of this happens in the spawn of less than a year. I didn't get to the ending yet but already know (well, it's classic after all) that Margaret is rewarded for her resilience, which I'm very grateful to Gaskell, as we need hopeful endings from time to time.