I, who have countless books to read...

Here's another undated poem from Mr Nash, but undoubtedly written in 1959 when he was at the height of his infatuation with our mother Marianne.

Do you like the book-themed wrapping paper I found in an old-fashioned newsagent's in Greenwich to use as a background on the blog? It's just perfect! :)

I, who have countless books to read
And welcome time upon  my  hands
This day, did vainly search for one
That would your presence bring to me.
So, then ,I wished that I could read
The verses I have made for you
That I could now recapture whole
Sweet moments past when I your beauty held
In thought, that then brought ecstasy
Though none that you might bring
If you were here with me.

Happy birthday, and an Election Day poem

Marianne would have been 79 today, had she not died at 52.


Happy birthday mummy xxx

With today's Election Day excitement, I thought it was worth digging out this poem from Mr Nash that he wrote about the General Election in 1959 which was held on 8 October, and won by the Conservatives led by Harold Macmillan. His poems to Marianne weren't all declaring undying love, it seems!

Election Day

This is the day when silly men
Their microscopic fancies view,
Make their cross and hang themselves
For worlds they never knew.

This is the day when all wise men
Look to their past and future too,
Putting their trust in God alone
While politicians stew!

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.