Sunday 1 February 2015

Yes, we shall meet again...

So. There are no more dated poems from Mr Nash. But many more undated ones. Whether he wrote these during the period between 5th February and 22nd October 1959 (the day on which Cyril famously noted "you bade me stop"), or he continued to write poems for Marianne but didn't give them to her (or wasn't able to, as she stopped visiting Jon Ash bookshop in her lunch hour) - who knows?

The only slight clue are the two ticks below the poem, and the number 21 pencilled in the top left hand corner - as noted on previous blog posts, this indicated that Cyril was particularly proud of that poem, and at some point handed them to Marianne to request her approval for publication. My next blog post will document the letters he wrote her regarding this request.

But for now - one of Mr Nash's personal favourites in his series of love poems to Marianne:
Yes, we shall meet again, and part
Unwise with talking sad inconsequence,
And go our unrequited ways
Too well aware of happy worlds
Which lie beyond the whisperings
Of our well-kept confines. So
We shall part and go unheard
Who learned with surest speech
The language of all living.