This one from 3 April 1959 is marked with a double tick from Cyril, denoting it was a particular favourite of his. He also marked it with the number 5 in the top left hand corner - which indicates the order in which he wanted his favourites to be collected together.
You are most beautiful;
And if my words do run away with me,
As you have said,
Then let them run to where they will
So they proclaim
To all who have not seen,
You are most beautiful.
You are most beautiful;
And if the pool that is my mind
Shall fail to mirror all I see,
Then shall I plunge more deeply still
Although it leads me to despair
And even words may fly from me,
For I so surely know
You are most beautiful.
3/4/1959
The next poem, just 3 days later, reads as follows:
To M. M.
If I could paint you as I see you now
With all your fresh young loveliness revealed,
All future generations would, I vow,
Be grateful for your beauty unconcealed;
But there remains my poor ungainly song
Which you despise, to fix forever charms
Which fairest Helen would not envy long,
For in you dwells that secret fire which warms
The hearts of men to her sweet memory,
And adds to all things lovely further grace
While re-enkindling hope for all to see
That beauty never dies and has no space;
The sweetest Palestrina madrigal
Might praise, yet not yourself recall
6/4/1959
On 8th April 1959, Cyril typed up a 'Five Part Madrigal to Hope', where he seems to be writing about his adoration for Marianne running deeper than may have been made apparent or acknowledged.
When you are near, music of madrigals
Fills my ears, intoned in quiet measure,
Where each distinct and lovely line forestalls
The moments in your presence, full of pleasure,
And talk that's mostly innocent at times
But takes a sharper poignancy that hurts
As hidden thought and strong emotion climbs
And thrives on ground that's fertile in outskirts.
Your voice and mine, your thoughts and mine
And under all, the voice of destiny
Insistent, never wavering design
Threading its diapasoned way to be,
When you and I in thought and mood are one
And universe resolves in unison.
8th April, 1959
On a random but somewhat related note, I was walking down Charing Cross Road in London on Sunday. It has a small raft of antiquarian bookshops halfway up it - presumably there were many more along this road back in the day - and it struck me that those remaining may be reminiscent of Jon Ash in the 1950s.
I also went to see where 84 Charing Cross Road was - the address of Marks & Co, the bookshop made famous in the book of the same name which documented 20 years of fond correspondence between Helen Hanff and Frank Doel, a buyer at the bookshop. Disappointingly, it is now a branch of Pizza Hut, and the ground floor level completely replaced by a modern shop frontage. Boo...
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| 84 Charing Cross Road - now a Pizza Hut |
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| Henry Pordes Books 58-60 Charing Cross Road |
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