Empress Elisabeth, Part IV

Corfu.....  worth a look

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDQj7nhn6bw&feature=related

I think it was Gisela, it would be the elder daughter to partner with her father if her mother chicken out yet again.

I think it was Gisela, it would be the elder daughter to partner with her father if her mother chicken out yet again.

Sigh......This is going to be an endless discussion...

Elske, dont try to beat the dead horse . Its useless, im telling you! ;-D

Neat video of Corfu, albiet a bit wobbly and fuzzy. I never knew what the inside looked like.
Ok, here are the two poems from inside my Sissi book:
One she wrote 14 days after she married FJ: (exerpt)

Oh, had I but never left the path,
That would have lead to freedom,
Oh, that on the big broad avenues,
Of vanity had I never strayed!
I have awakened in a dungeon,
With chains on my hands,
And my longing ever stronger--
And freedom. You turned from me!
I have awakened from a rapture,
Which held my spirit captive,
And vainly do I curse this exchange,
In which I gambled you, freedom, away.

I need not tell you of the time,
Which once united us as intimate,
And which neither you nor I could ever forget,
However endlessly distant it may seem yet.
Do you remember that sweet trice,
Where I from the will-less frame,
Did kiss the soul from thy lips,
That it might ever more be mine?
I have perforce,had to battled through,
And felt much bitter pain since then;
But to see our love die, though,
Nought hath struck my heart so heavily as that.
--as if to Franz Josef, later on. I don't know if she actually did give it to him, or if he read it, but I hardly think so.

There are three, actually.
To the "souls of the future":

I wander lonely before me on this planet earth,
All yearning long since gone, and life;
To share my innermost there is no companion,
There never was a soul who understood.
I flee the world, it's pleasures too,
And it's people are distant to me now;
Their joys foreign to my distress;
I wander lonely as if upon a star.
And my soul, heavy to burst,
Mute sensuality is not enough,
What it needs is found in song,
And this I am burying in my book.
This will keep you faithfully into an age,
From souls who understand you not in this life,
Till one day, following lengthy years of change,
These songs, blooming, do revive.

Pretty powerful, eh? My book says that she wrote poems enough to cover 600 pages!  Wish I could see those!

People criticise  her poetry  as  banal  but the fact that they were written by Elizabeth
makes them important and fascinating.
 I guessing... those 3 are in the sonnet form ?  perhaps more musical and rhyming in the German
language.
 Whatever else Elizabeth did, she has left a vast  literary heritage.... probably a lot  of her poetry  
survives in manuscript too... (worth a lot of money today no doubt !)

Cant think of any literary heritage that Diana left behind  !

Again and again, reading of  say Princess Alexandra and other British Royals we hear that
"her letters   were burned after her death",  sounds like something similar
was happening in the   Hapsburg dynasty too... they want to stiffle all kinds of gossip
and tittle tattle.....  the police burning   Elizabeth's diary  too  shortly after her death .... !
its a wonder there is anything left !

Poems from some famous people like Goethe are totally boring, but it was Goethe.
I like the cynicism and the mean humour of Elisabeth. She wasn´t an angel. But this makes it even more interesting. IMO.

IMaybe she didn't expect any photographers? And to the height: I think FJ looks here taller because of his hat.
But something looks weird in the pic - look at his shoes, looks like he would fall down the next moment or is it just my sight?

I was looking at the shoulder height of the male person, not the top of his hat.

He did appear to be taller...

Well, the height of Franz Joseph and Sissi was similar, in the photo it doesn't look to be a great difference between them (only a bit for the hat). There aren't much photos showing  a maturer Sissi but the ones labeled as her she doesn't look as young. I wouldn't doubt that Gisela inherited certain features from her mother, and Sissi with faded beauty resembled Gisela more than younger. Would Gisela been choosed by her father to accompain him to a event of this kind?? I doubt so.

Personally I don't think that Sissi was a particularly great writer, I've read translations of some of her poems and they aren't so interesting. She only used poetry to express all about her feelings (the ones I've read) or other things she tought. I think that they haven't trascended to time very much

All right, since it seems like every Sisi/Hapsburg fan on this board is getting into this discussion, I wil too. 
At first glance a while ago, I thought it was Sisi. Now, after closer inspection, I've changed my mind. I think it's Gisela, firstly because I've never seen Elisabeth wear a hat like that, and secondly, the features just look too much like Gisela. While she did bear some resemblance to her mother, I've always observed that Gisela had a bit more of a chubby face, with dimples, whereas Sissi had a less plump countenance. We all know how much she strived for a thin figure!  Soo..I think it's Gisela. Just the whole countenace of the lady seems to exclaim Gisela to me, I dunno why. 

Yes. without more proof or a close up photo...it is a dead horse.  

Here's your close up...