SISSON (Charles Jasper, 1885-1966, Academic and Author, Shakespearean Scholar, from 1928 until 1951 he was Lord Northcliffe professor of modern English literature at University College London)

Typed Letter Signed with initals 'C.S.' to Walter de la MARE (1873-1956, Poet and Novelist) saying "There I've done it again. This time it was because my wife was away at the cottage, and I waited to consult her ... Then I was on the run ...I am ashamed. But she brought her Mother with her, so we could not have left her today ... May I write and beg one day? I see that Rosemary is not the only person to name you O.C.Poetry. The rest of the panel for the King's Prizes might be improved, I think. Why no Professor of Poetry? Lascelles or Grierson, for example? and why Richards, I wonder? I have a little poem in Rosemary's earlier manner, - unearthed today by chance, - aged 7. Here it is: Two Ships / Two little ships, / Sailing the sea, / One belongs to you, / And one to me ..." with two more verses then he continues "I fancy it was a cross between yachts at sea off Littlehampton and a French toy - but I don't know for sure any of her Roads to Xanadu. I am not sure that the best poem I ever wrote was not one written in a dream and, for a wonder, recalled on waking. It is beautifully simple and has no title. I and It / It is I / I made an It / Our of I / It and I / That is I. And here is what I am capable of at my worst, i.e. when awake on an Armistice Day. Immortality / The dead they cease from weeping / Small comfort lies that way / Their tears can not be wiped away / For they are dead, not sleeping / They have no eyes to weep with, yea / The dead they cease from weeping. But I can also write Album Verses. Here is a quatrain to M.S. and who she may have been I cannot now say. Candid, unsubtle, rarely sweet / With faith drowned deep in brave brown eyes / Whence for the blue-eyed hopeful fisher comes / One day the jewelled tear, the lovely prize. I have a rag-bag. It helps me understand poets and poetry. I hate the critic who makes connaisseurship his starting-point in considering art old or new... I'm to give the British Academy Shakespeare Lecture next April and I think I have something to say ...", 2 sides A4, 1 The Grangeway, Grange Park, London, 26th November



Item Date:  1933

Stock No:  41611      £175

             Add to Wish List     Order/Enquire