W. H. Davies
Encyclopedia
William Henry Davies or W. H. Davies (3 July 1871 – 26 September 1940) was a Welsh
poet and writer. Davies spent a significant part of his life as a tramp
or vagabond
in the United States
and United Kingdom
, but became known as one of the most popular poets of his time. The principal themes in his work are the marvels of nature, observations about life's hardships, his own tramping adventures and the various characters he met. Davies is usually considered as one of the Georgian poets
, although much of his work is atypical of the style and themes adopted by others of the genre.
The son of an iron moulder, Davies was born at 6, Portland Street in the Pillgwenlly
district of Newport, Monmouthshire
, Wales, a busy port. He had an elder brother, Francis Gomer Boase (who was considered "slow") and in 1874 his younger sister Matilda was born.
In November 1874, when William was aged three, his father died. The following year his mother Mary Anne Davies remarried and became Mrs Joseph Hill. She agreed that care of the three children should pass to their paternal grandparents, Francis and Lydia Davies, who ran the nearby Church House Inn at 14, Portland Street. His grandfather Francis Boase Davies, originally from Cornwall
, had been a sea captain. Davies was related to the famous British actor Sir Henry Irving (referred to as cousin Brodribb by the family).
In 1879 the family moved to Raglan Street, then later to Upper Lewis Street, from where William attended Temple School. In 1883 he moved to Alexandra Road School and the following year was arrested, as part of gang of five school-mates, and charged with stealing handbags. He was given twelve strokes of the birch
. In 1885 Davies wrote his first poem entitled "Death".
In his 1918 Poet's Pilgrimage, Davies recounts the time when, at the age of 14, he had been left with orders' to sit with his dying grandfather. He missed the final moments of his grandfather's passing as he had been too engrossed in reading "...a very interesting book of wild adventure."
, published in 1908, covers his life in the USA between 1893 and 1899, and includes many adventures and characters from his travels as a drifter. During this period he crossed the Atlantic at least seven times working on cattle ships. He travelled through many of the States, sometimes begging, sometimes taking seasonal work, but often ending up spending any savings on a drinking spree with a fellow traveller. At one stage, on his way to Memphis, Tennessee
, he lay alone in a swamp for three days and nights suffering from malaria
.
The turning point in Davies' life came when he read in England of the riches to be made in the Klondike
and immediately set off to make his fortune in Canada
. Attempting to jump a freight train at Renfrew, Ontario
with fellow tramp Three-fingered Jack, he lost his footing and his right foot was crushed under the wheels of the train. The leg later had to be amputated below the knee and he wore a wooden leg thereafter. Davies' biographers have agreed that the significance of the accident should not be underestimated, even though Davies himself played down the story. Moult begins his biography with the incident and Stonesifer has suggested that this event more than any other led Davies to become a professional poet. Davies himself wrote of the accident: "I bore this accident with an outward fortitude that was far from the true state of my feelings. Thinking of my present helplessness caused me many a bitter moment, but I managed to impress all comers with a false indifference… I was soon home again, having been away less than four months; but all the wildness had been taken out of me, and my adventures after this were not of my own seeking, but the result of circumstances." Davies' view of his own disability was ambivalent. In his poem "The Fog", published in the 1913 Foliage , a blind man leads the poet through the fog, showing the reader that one who is handicapped in one domain may well have a considerable advantage in another.
hostel in Southwark
known as "The Ark" which he grew to despise. Fearing the contempt of his fellow tramps, he would often feign slumber in the corner of his doss-house, mentally composing his poems and only later committing them to paper in private. At one stage he borrowed money to have his poems printed on loose sheets of paper which he then tried to sell door-to-door through the streets of residential London. When this enterprise failed, he returned to his lodgings and, in a fit of rage, burned all of the printed sheets in the fire.
His first book of poetry "The Soul's Destroyer" was self-published in 1905, again by means of Davies' own savings. It proved to be the beginning of success and a growing reputation. In order to even get the slim volume published Davies had to forego his allowance and live the life of a tramp for six months (with the first draft of the book hidden in his pocket), just to secure a loan of funds from his inheritance. When eventually published the volume was largely ignored and he resorted to posting individual copies by hand to prospective wealthy customers chosen from the pages of "Who's Who
", asking them to send the price of the book, a half crown
, in return. He eventually managed to sell 60 of the 200 copies printed. One of the copies was sent to Arthur Adcock
, then a journalist with the Daily Mail
. On reading the book, as he later wrote in his essay "Gods Of Modern Grub Street", Adcock said that he "recognised that there were crudities and even doggerel in it, there was also in it some of the freshest and most magical poetry to be found in modern books". He sent the price of the book and asked Davies to meet him. Adcock is still generally regarded as "the man who discovered Davies". The first trade edition of "The Soul's Destroyer" was published by Alston Rivers in 1907. A second edition followed in 1908 and a third in 1910. A 1906 edition, by Fifield, was advertised but has not been verified
, then literary critic for the Daily Chronicle
in London, who was to do more to help him than anyone else. Thomas rented a tiny two-roomed cottage for Davies not far from his own home at Elses Farm near Sevenoaks
in Kent
. Davies moved to the cottage in Eel Pie Lane from Newport, via London, in the second week of February 1907. The cottage was "only two meadows off" from Thomas' own house. Thomas adopted the role of protective guardian for Davies, on one occasion even arranging for the manufacture, by a local wheelwright
, of a makeshift replacement wooden leg.
In 1907, the manuscript of "The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp
" drew the attention of George Bernard Shaw
, who agreed to write a preface (largely through the concerted efforts of his wife Charlotte). It was only because of Shaw that Davies' contract with the publishers was re-written to allow the author to retain the serial rights, all rights after three years, royalties of fifteen per cent of selling price and a non-returnable advance of twenty five pounds. Davies was also to be given a say on the style of all illustrations, advertisement layouts and cover designs. The original publisher, Duckworth and Sons
, refused to accept these demands and so the book was placed instead with London publisher Fifield.
A number of anecdotes of Davies' time with the Thomas family in Kent are recounted in the brief account later published by Thomas' widow Helen. In 1911 Davies was awarded a Civil List
Pension of £50, later increased to £100 and then again to £150.
in the Bloomsbury
district, previously the residence of Charles Dickens
. Here in a tiny two-room apartment, initially infested with mice and rats, and next door to rooms occupied by a noisy Belgian prostitute, he lived from early 1916 until 1921. It was during this time in London that Davies embarked on a series of public readings of his work, alongside such others as Hillaire Belloc and W. B. Yeats, impressing such fellow poets as Ezra Pound
. He soon found that he was able to socialise with leading society figures of the day, including Lord Balfour
and Lady Randolph Churchill. While in London Davies also became friendly with a number of artists including Jacob Epstein
, Harold and Laura Knight
, Nina Hamnett
, Augustus John
, Harold Gilman
, William Rothenstein
, Walter Sickert
, Sir William Nicholson and Osbert and Edith Sitwell
.
In his poetry Davies drew extensively for material on his experiences with the seamier side of life, but also on his love of nature. By the time of his prominent place in the Edward Marsh Georgian poetry
series, he was an established figure. He is generally best known for the opening two lines of the poem Leisure
, first published in Songs Of Joy and Others in 1911:"What is this life if, full of care / We have no time to stand and stare..."
In the last months of 1921 Davies moved to more comfortable quarters at 13, Avery Row, Brook Street
, where he rented rooms from the Quaker poet Olaf Baker. He began to find prolonged work difficult, however, suffering from increased bouts of rheumatism and other ailments. Harlow (1993) lists a total of 14 BBC
broadcasts of Davies reading his own work made between 1924 and 1940 (now held in the BBC broadcast archive
) although none included his most famous work "Leisure". "Later Days", the 1925 sequel to "The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp", describes the beginnings of Davies' career as a writer and his acquaintance with Belloc, Shaw and de la Mare
, amongst many others.
On 5 February 1923, Davies married 23-year-old Helen Payne, at the Registry Office in East Grinstead
, Sussex
and the couple set up home in the town at "Tor Leven", Cantelupe Road. According to one of the witnesses, Conrad Aiken
, the ceremony proceeded with Davies "in a near panic". His book Young Emma was a frank and often disturbing account of his life before and after picking Helen up at a bus-stop in the Edgware Road near Marble Arch
. Still unmarried, Helen was pregnant at the time. Whilst living with Davies in London, before the couple were married, Helen suffered a dramatic and almost fatal miscarriage. Although Davies eagerly sent the manuscript for Young Emma to Jonathan Cape in August 1924, he later changed his mind and asked for the manuscript to be returned and the copies destroyed. Only Davies' lack of direct instruction prompted Cape to secretly keep the copies in a locked safe. Later, following Davies' death, when asked by Cape for his advice, George Bernard Shaw advised against publication, and the book was to be eventually published only after Helen's death in 1979.
The couple lived quietly and happily, moving from East Grinstead, first to Sevenoaks, then to "Malpas House", Oxted
in Surrey
and finally settling at a series of five different residences at Nailsworth
in Gloucestershire
. The first of these was the comfortable 19th-century stone house "Shenstone", and the last the small roadside cottage "Glendower" in the hamlet of Watledge. The couple had no children.
. In 2010 "The Friends of Glendower" arranged a series of lectures, exhibitions, walks and other events, in Nailsworth and Stroud, between 13 and 26 September to mark the 70th anniversary of the poet's death.
and George Borrow
, while Davies' style was described by Shaw as that of "a genuine innocent".
For his honorary degree in 1926, Davies was introduced to the assembly at the University of Wales
by Professor W. D. Thomas, M.A. with a citation that may still serve as a valid summary of Davies' literary themes, style and tone: "A Welshman, a poet of distinction, and a man in whose work much of the peculiarly Welsh attitude to life is expressed with singular grace and sincerity. He combines a vivid sense of beauty with affection for the homely, keen zest for life and adventure with a rare appreciation of the common, universal pleasures, and finds in those simple things of daily life a precious quality, a dignity and a wonder that consecrate them. Natural, simple and unaffected, he is free from sham in feeling and artifice in expression. He has re-discovered for those who have forgotten them, the joys of simple nature. He has found romance in that which has become commonplace; and of the native impulses of an unspoilt heart, and the responses of a sensitive spirit, he has made a new world of experience and delight. He is a lover of life, accepting it and glorying in it. He affirms values that were falling into neglect, and in an age that is mercenary reminds us that we have the capacity for spiritual enjoyment."
Somewhat surprisingly, his great friend and mentor, Edward Thomas, likened Davies to Wordsworth, writing: "He can write commonplace or inaccurate English, but it is also natural to him to write, such as Wordsworth wrote, with the clearness, compactness and felicity which make a man think with shame how unworthily, through natural stupidity or uncertainty, he manages his native tongue. In subtlety he abounds, and where else today shall we find simplicity like this?"
from the University of Wales
. Davies returned to his native Newport in 1930, where a luncheon was held in his honour at the Westgate Hotel
. He returned again in September 1938 for the unveiling of a plaque in his honour at the Church House Inn with an address given by the Poet Laureate John Masefield
. He was unwell, however, and this proved to be his last public appearance. His health deteriorated, not helped by the weight of his wooden leg, and he died in September 1940 at the age of 69. Never a church-goer in his adult life, Davies was cremated at Cheltenham
and his remains interred there.
A large collection of Davies manuscripts, including a copy of Lesiure, dated 8 May 1914, is held by the National Library of Wales
. The collection includes a copy of A Boy's Sorrow, an apparently unpublished poem of two eight-line stanzas relating to the death of a neighbour. Also included is a volume (c. 1916) containing autograph fair copies of 15 Davies poems, some of them apparently unpublished, submitted to James Guthrie (1874–1952) for publication by the Pear Tree Press as a collection entitled Quiet Streams, to which annotations have been added by Lord Kenyon.
A number of Davies' poems have been set to music. These include The Rain for voice and piano, by Margaret Campbell Bruce, published in 1951 by J. Curwen and Sons. A musical adapation of Leisure, with John Karvelas (vocals) and Nick Pitloglou (piano) and an animated film by Pipaluk Polanksi, may be found on YouTube
.
A controversial statue by Paul Bothwell-Kincaid, inspired by the poem "Leisure", was unveiled in Commercial Street, Newport in December 1990 to commemorate Davies' work, on the 50th anniversary of his death. The bronze head of Davies by Epstein
, from January 1917, regarded by many as the most accurate artistic impression of Davies and a copy of which Davies owned himself, may be found at Newport Museum and Art Gallery
(donated by Viscount Tredegar
).
In August 2010 the play Supertramp, Sickert and Jack the Ripper by Lewis Davies, concerning an imagined sitting by Davies for a portrait by Walter Sickert
, premiered at the Edinburgh Festival.
Welsh people
The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...
poet and writer. Davies spent a significant part of his life as a tramp
Tramp
A tramp is a long term homeless person who travels from place to place as a vagrant, traditionally walking or hiking all year round. In British English meanwhile a tramp simply refers to a homeless person, usually not a travelling one....
or vagabond
Vagabond (person)
A vagabond is a drifter and an itinerant wanderer who roams wherever they please, following the whim of the moment. Vagabonds may lack residence, a job, and even citizenship....
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, but became known as one of the most popular poets of his time. The principal themes in his work are the marvels of nature, observations about life's hardships, his own tramping adventures and the various characters he met. Davies is usually considered as one of the Georgian poets
Georgian poets
The Georgian poets were, by the strictest definition, those whose works appeared in a series of five anthologies named Georgian Poetry, published by Harold Monro and edited by Edward Marsh. The first volume contained poems written in 1911 and 1912. The poets included Edmund Blunden, Rupert Brooke,...
, although much of his work is atypical of the style and themes adopted by others of the genre.
Early life
Pillgwenlly
Pillgwenlly is an electoral district and coterminous community parish in the city of Newport, South Wales. The area is governed by the Newport City Council.- Origin of the name :...
district of Newport, Monmouthshire
Monmouthshire (historic)
Monmouthshire , also known as the County of Monmouth , is one of thirteen ancient counties of Wales and a former administrative county....
, Wales, a busy port. He had an elder brother, Francis Gomer Boase (who was considered "slow") and in 1874 his younger sister Matilda was born.
In November 1874, when William was aged three, his father died. The following year his mother Mary Anne Davies remarried and became Mrs Joseph Hill. She agreed that care of the three children should pass to their paternal grandparents, Francis and Lydia Davies, who ran the nearby Church House Inn at 14, Portland Street. His grandfather Francis Boase Davies, originally from Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, had been a sea captain. Davies was related to the famous British actor Sir Henry Irving (referred to as cousin Brodribb by the family).
In 1879 the family moved to Raglan Street, then later to Upper Lewis Street, from where William attended Temple School. In 1883 he moved to Alexandra Road School and the following year was arrested, as part of gang of five school-mates, and charged with stealing handbags. He was given twelve strokes of the birch
Birching
Birching is a corporal punishment with a birch rod, typically applied to the recipient's bare buttocks, although occasionally to the back and/or shoulders.-Implement:...
. In 1885 Davies wrote his first poem entitled "Death".
In his 1918 Poet's Pilgrimage, Davies recounts the time when, at the age of 14, he had been left with orders' to sit with his dying grandfather. He missed the final moments of his grandfather's passing as he had been too engrossed in reading "...a very interesting book of wild adventure."
Delinquent to Supertramp
Having finished school under the cloud of his delinquent activities he worked first for an ironmonger. In November 1886 his grandmother signed the papers for Davies to begin a five year apprenticeship to a local picture-frame maker. Davies never enjoyed the craft, however, and never settled into any regular work. He was a difficult and somewhat delinquent young man, and made repeated requests to his grandmother to lend him the money to sail to America. When these were all refused, he eventually left Newport, took casual work and started to travel. The Autobiography of a Super-TrampThe Autobiography of a Super-Tramp
The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp is an autobiography published in 1908 by the Welsh poet and writer William Henry Davies...
, published in 1908, covers his life in the USA between 1893 and 1899, and includes many adventures and characters from his travels as a drifter. During this period he crossed the Atlantic at least seven times working on cattle ships. He travelled through many of the States, sometimes begging, sometimes taking seasonal work, but often ending up spending any savings on a drinking spree with a fellow traveller. At one stage, on his way to Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
, he lay alone in a swamp for three days and nights suffering from malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
.
The turning point in Davies' life came when he read in England of the riches to be made in the Klondike
Klondike Gold Rush
The Klondike Gold Rush, also called the Yukon Gold Rush, the Alaska Gold Rush and the Last Great Gold Rush, was an attempt by an estimated 100,000 people to travel to the Klondike region the Yukon in north-western Canada between 1897 and 1899 in the hope of successfully prospecting for gold...
and immediately set off to make his fortune in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Attempting to jump a freight train at Renfrew, Ontario
Renfrew, Ontario
Renfrew, Ontario, Canada, is a town on the Bonnechere River in Renfrew County. Located one hour west of Ottawa in Eastern Ontario, Renfrew is the third largest town in the county after Petawawa and Pembroke. The town is a small transportation hub connecting Ontario Highway 60 and Highway 132 with...
with fellow tramp Three-fingered Jack, he lost his footing and his right foot was crushed under the wheels of the train. The leg later had to be amputated below the knee and he wore a wooden leg thereafter. Davies' biographers have agreed that the significance of the accident should not be underestimated, even though Davies himself played down the story. Moult begins his biography with the incident and Stonesifer has suggested that this event more than any other led Davies to become a professional poet. Davies himself wrote of the accident: "I bore this accident with an outward fortitude that was far from the true state of my feelings. Thinking of my present helplessness caused me many a bitter moment, but I managed to impress all comers with a false indifference… I was soon home again, having been away less than four months; but all the wildness had been taken out of me, and my adventures after this were not of my own seeking, but the result of circumstances." Davies' view of his own disability was ambivalent. In his poem "The Fog", published in the 1913 Foliage , a blind man leads the poet through the fog, showing the reader that one who is handicapped in one domain may well have a considerable advantage in another.
Poet
He returned to Britain, living a rough life, particularly in London shelters and doss-houses, including the Salvation ArmySalvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
hostel in Southwark
Southwark
Southwark is a district of south London, England, and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Southwark. Situated east of Charing Cross, it forms one of the oldest parts of London and fronts the River Thames to the north...
known as "The Ark" which he grew to despise. Fearing the contempt of his fellow tramps, he would often feign slumber in the corner of his doss-house, mentally composing his poems and only later committing them to paper in private. At one stage he borrowed money to have his poems printed on loose sheets of paper which he then tried to sell door-to-door through the streets of residential London. When this enterprise failed, he returned to his lodgings and, in a fit of rage, burned all of the printed sheets in the fire.
His first book of poetry "The Soul's Destroyer" was self-published in 1905, again by means of Davies' own savings. It proved to be the beginning of success and a growing reputation. In order to even get the slim volume published Davies had to forego his allowance and live the life of a tramp for six months (with the first draft of the book hidden in his pocket), just to secure a loan of funds from his inheritance. When eventually published the volume was largely ignored and he resorted to posting individual copies by hand to prospective wealthy customers chosen from the pages of "Who's Who
Who's Who (UK)
Who's Who is an annual British publication of biographies which vary in length of about 30,000 living notable Britons.-History:...
", asking them to send the price of the book, a half crown
Half crown (British coin)
The half crown was a denomination of British money worth half of a crown, equivalent to two and a half shillings , or one-eighth of a pound. The half crown was first issued in 1549, in the reign of Edward VI...
, in return. He eventually managed to sell 60 of the 200 copies printed. One of the copies was sent to Arthur Adcock
Arthur St. John Adcock
Arthur St. John Adcock , was an English novelist and poet, remembered for his discovery of the then-unknown poet W. H. Davies....
, then a journalist with the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
. On reading the book, as he later wrote in his essay "Gods Of Modern Grub Street", Adcock said that he "recognised that there were crudities and even doggerel in it, there was also in it some of the freshest and most magical poetry to be found in modern books". He sent the price of the book and asked Davies to meet him. Adcock is still generally regarded as "the man who discovered Davies". The first trade edition of "The Soul's Destroyer" was published by Alston Rivers in 1907. A second edition followed in 1908 and a third in 1910. A 1906 edition, by Fifield, was advertised but has not been verified
Rural life in Kent
On 12 October 1905 Davies met Edward ThomasEdward Thomas (poet)
Philip Edward Thomas was an Anglo-Welsh writer of prose and poetry. He is commonly considered a war poet, although few of his poems deal directly with his war experiences. Already an accomplished writer, Thomas turned to poetry only in 1914...
, then literary critic for the Daily Chronicle
Daily Chronicle
The Daily Chronicle was a British newspaper that was published from 1872 to 1930 when it merged with the Daily News to become the News Chronicle.-History:...
in London, who was to do more to help him than anyone else. Thomas rented a tiny two-roomed cottage for Davies not far from his own home at Elses Farm near Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks is a commuter town situated on the London fringe of west Kent, England, some 20 miles south-east of Charing Cross, on one of the principal commuter rail lines from the capital...
in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
. Davies moved to the cottage in Eel Pie Lane from Newport, via London, in the second week of February 1907. The cottage was "only two meadows off" from Thomas' own house. Thomas adopted the role of protective guardian for Davies, on one occasion even arranging for the manufacture, by a local wheelwright
Wheelwright
A wheelwright is a person who builds or repairs wheels. The word is the combination of "wheel" and the archaic word "wright", which comes from the Old English word "wryhta", meaning a worker or maker...
, of a makeshift replacement wooden leg.
In 1907, the manuscript of "The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp
The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp
The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp is an autobiography published in 1908 by the Welsh poet and writer William Henry Davies...
" drew the attention of George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
, who agreed to write a preface (largely through the concerted efforts of his wife Charlotte). It was only because of Shaw that Davies' contract with the publishers was re-written to allow the author to retain the serial rights, all rights after three years, royalties of fifteen per cent of selling price and a non-returnable advance of twenty five pounds. Davies was also to be given a say on the style of all illustrations, advertisement layouts and cover designs. The original publisher, Duckworth and Sons
Gerald Duckworth and Company Ltd
-History:Founded in 1898 by Gerald Duckworth, Duckworth is an independent British publisher. It was important in the development of English literature in the first half of the twentieth century, being the publisher of figures such as Virginia Woolf , W. H. Davies, Anthony Powell, John Galsworthy...
, refused to accept these demands and so the book was placed instead with London publisher Fifield.
A number of anecdotes of Davies' time with the Thomas family in Kent are recounted in the brief account later published by Thomas' widow Helen. In 1911 Davies was awarded a Civil List
Civil list
-United Kingdom:In the United Kingdom, the Civil List is the name given to the annual grant that covers some expenses associated with the Sovereign performing their official duties, including those for staff salaries, State Visits, public engagements, ceremonial functions and the upkeep of the...
Pension of £50, later increased to £100 and then again to £150.
Society life in London
After lodging at a number of temporary addresses in Sevenoaks, Davies moved back to London early in 1914, settling eventually at 14, Great Russell StreetGreat Russell Street
Great Russell Street is a street in Bloomsbury, central London, England. It is the location of the main entrance of the British Museum to the north. The Congress Centre of the Trades Union Congress is located at number 28...
in the Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury
-Places:* Bloomsbury is an area in central London.* Bloomsbury , related local government unit* Bloomsbury, New Jersey, New Jersey, USA* Bloomsbury , listed on the NRHP in Maryland...
district, previously the residence of Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
. Here in a tiny two-room apartment, initially infested with mice and rats, and next door to rooms occupied by a noisy Belgian prostitute, he lived from early 1916 until 1921. It was during this time in London that Davies embarked on a series of public readings of his work, alongside such others as Hillaire Belloc and W. B. Yeats, impressing such fellow poets as Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
. He soon found that he was able to socialise with leading society figures of the day, including Lord Balfour
Arthur Balfour
Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, KG, OM, PC, DL was a British Conservative politician and statesman...
and Lady Randolph Churchill. While in London Davies also became friendly with a number of artists including Jacob Epstein
Jacob Epstein
Sir Jacob Epstein KBE was an American-born British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902, becoming a British citizen in 1911. He often produced controversial works which challenged taboos on what was appropriate subject matter...
, Harold and Laura Knight
Laura Knight
Dame Laura Knight, DBE was an English Impressionist painter known for painting the world of London's theatre, ballet and circus.-Early life and education:...
, Nina Hamnett
Nina Hamnett
Nina Hamnett was a Welsh artist and writer, and an expert on sailors' chanteys, who became known as the Queen of Bohemia.- Early life :...
, Augustus John
Augustus John
Augustus Edwin John OM, RA, was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a short time around 1910, he was an important exponent of Post-Impressionism in the United Kingdom....
, Harold Gilman
Harold Gilman
The British artist Harold John Wilde Gilman was a painter of interiors, portraits and landscapes, and a founder-member of the Camden Town Group.-Early life and studies:...
, William Rothenstein
William Rothenstein
Sir William Rothenstein was an English painter, draughtsman and writer on art.-Life and work:William Rothenstein was born into a German-Jewish family in Bradford, West Yorkshire. His father, Moritz, emigrated from Germany in 1859 to work in Bradford's burgeoning textile industry...
, Walter Sickert
Walter Sickert
Walter Richard Sickert , born in Munich, Germany, was a painter who was a member of the Camden Town Group in London. He was an important influence on distinctively British styles of avant-garde art in the 20th century....
, Sir William Nicholson and Osbert and Edith Sitwell
Edith Sitwell
Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell DBE was a British poet and critic.-Background:Edith Sitwell was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, the oldest child and only daughter of Sir George Sitwell, 4th Baronet, of Renishaw Hall; he was an expert on genealogy and landscaping...
.
In his poetry Davies drew extensively for material on his experiences with the seamier side of life, but also on his love of nature. By the time of his prominent place in the Edward Marsh Georgian poetry
Georgian Poetry
Georgian Poetry was the title of a series of anthologies showcasing the work of a school of English poetry that established itself during the early years of the reign of King George V of the United Kingdom....
series, he was an established figure. He is generally best known for the opening two lines of the poem Leisure
Leisure (poem)
Leisure is a poem by Welsh poet William Henry Davies, appearing originally in his Songs Of Joy and Others, published in 1911 by A. C. Fifield and then in Davies' first anthology Collected Poems, also published by Fifield in 1916.-Structure:...
, first published in Songs Of Joy and Others in 1911:"What is this life if, full of care / We have no time to stand and stare..."
In the last months of 1921 Davies moved to more comfortable quarters at 13, Avery Row, Brook Street
Brook Street
Brook Street is one of the principal streets on the Grosvenor Estate in the exclusive central London district of Mayfair. It was developed in the first half of the 18th century and runs from Hanover Square to Grosvenor Square. The continuation from Grosvenor Square to Park Lane is called Upper...
, where he rented rooms from the Quaker poet Olaf Baker. He began to find prolonged work difficult, however, suffering from increased bouts of rheumatism and other ailments. Harlow (1993) lists a total of 14 BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
broadcasts of Davies reading his own work made between 1924 and 1940 (now held in the BBC broadcast archive
Caversham Park
Caversham Park is a Victorian stately home with parkland in the suburb of Caversham, on the outskirts of Reading, England. Historically it was in Oxfordshire, but since 1911 it has been in Berkshire.-Early History:...
) although none included his most famous work "Leisure". "Later Days", the 1925 sequel to "The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp", describes the beginnings of Davies' career as a writer and his acquaintance with Belloc, Shaw and de la Mare
Walter de la Mare
Walter John de la Mare , OM CH was an English poet, short story writer and novelist, probably best remembered for his works for children and the poem "The Listeners"....
, amongst many others.
Marriage and later life
East Grinstead
East Grinstead is a town and civil parish in the northeastern corner of Mid Sussex, West Sussex in England near the East Sussex, Surrey, and Kent borders. It lies south of London, north northeast of Brighton, and east northeast of the county town of Chichester...
, Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
and the couple set up home in the town at "Tor Leven", Cantelupe Road. According to one of the witnesses, Conrad Aiken
Conrad Aiken
Conrad Potter Aiken was an American novelist and poet, whose work includes poetry, short stories, novels, a play and an autobiography.-Early years:...
, the ceremony proceeded with Davies "in a near panic". His book Young Emma was a frank and often disturbing account of his life before and after picking Helen up at a bus-stop in the Edgware Road near Marble Arch
Marble Arch
Marble Arch is a white Carrara marble monument that now stands on a large traffic island at the junction of Oxford Street, Park Lane, and Edgware Road, almost directly opposite Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park in London, England...
. Still unmarried, Helen was pregnant at the time. Whilst living with Davies in London, before the couple were married, Helen suffered a dramatic and almost fatal miscarriage. Although Davies eagerly sent the manuscript for Young Emma to Jonathan Cape in August 1924, he later changed his mind and asked for the manuscript to be returned and the copies destroyed. Only Davies' lack of direct instruction prompted Cape to secretly keep the copies in a locked safe. Later, following Davies' death, when asked by Cape for his advice, George Bernard Shaw advised against publication, and the book was to be eventually published only after Helen's death in 1979.
The couple lived quietly and happily, moving from East Grinstead, first to Sevenoaks, then to "Malpas House", Oxted
Oxted
Oxted is a commuter town in Surrey, England at the foot of the North Downs, north of East Grinstead and south-east of Croydon.- History :The town lay within the Anglo-Saxon administrative division of Tandridge hundred....
in Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
and finally settling at a series of five different residences at Nailsworth
Nailsworth
Nailsworth is a town in Gloucestershire, England, lying in one of the Stroud Valleys in the Cotswolds. It has a population of around 6,600 people and lies on the A46 road....
in Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
. The first of these was the comfortable 19th-century stone house "Shenstone", and the last the small roadside cottage "Glendower" in the hamlet of Watledge. The couple had no children.
Glendower
From 1949 "Glendower" was the home of the poet's great nephew Norman Phillips. In 2003 Phillips suffered a heart attack and was forced to move into council accommodation. He subsequently spent £34,000 on the house hoping to move back, but faced a further five figure sum for essential maintenance. Local residents, including Anthony Burton and biographer Barbara Hooper, formed "The Friends of Glendower" to help save the property and promote the poet's work. Stroud District Council, however, had already voted to embark on the process of obtaining a Compulsory Purchase OrderCompulsory purchase order
A compulsory purchase order is a legal function in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland that allows certain bodies which need to obtain land or property to do so without the consent of the owner. It may be enforced if a proposed development is considered one for public betterment - for...
. In 2010 "The Friends of Glendower" arranged a series of lectures, exhibitions, walks and other events, in Nailsworth and Stroud, between 13 and 26 September to mark the 70th anniversary of the poet's death.
Literary style
Stonesifer likens the quality of Davies' prose, with its often childlike realism, directness and simplicity, to that of DefoeDefoe
Defoe can refer to:*Defoe , a 17th century zombie story by Pat Mills and Leigh Gallagher for 2000AD*Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe*Gideon Defoe, author of Pirates!*Jermain Defoe, English footballer who plays for Tottenham Hotspur...
and George Borrow
George Borrow
George Henry Borrow was an English author who wrote novels and travelogues based on his own experiences around Europe. Over the course of his wanderings, he developed a close affinity with the Romani people of Europe. They figure prominently in his work...
, while Davies' style was described by Shaw as that of "a genuine innocent".
For his honorary degree in 1926, Davies was introduced to the assembly at the University of Wales
University of Wales
The University of Wales was a confederal university founded in 1893. It had accredited institutions throughout Wales, and formerly accredited courses in Britain and abroad, with over 100,000 students, but in October 2011, after a number of scandals, it withdrew all accreditation, and it was...
by Professor W. D. Thomas, M.A. with a citation that may still serve as a valid summary of Davies' literary themes, style and tone: "A Welshman, a poet of distinction, and a man in whose work much of the peculiarly Welsh attitude to life is expressed with singular grace and sincerity. He combines a vivid sense of beauty with affection for the homely, keen zest for life and adventure with a rare appreciation of the common, universal pleasures, and finds in those simple things of daily life a precious quality, a dignity and a wonder that consecrate them. Natural, simple and unaffected, he is free from sham in feeling and artifice in expression. He has re-discovered for those who have forgotten them, the joys of simple nature. He has found romance in that which has become commonplace; and of the native impulses of an unspoilt heart, and the responses of a sensitive spirit, he has made a new world of experience and delight. He is a lover of life, accepting it and glorying in it. He affirms values that were falling into neglect, and in an age that is mercenary reminds us that we have the capacity for spiritual enjoyment."
Somewhat surprisingly, his great friend and mentor, Edward Thomas, likened Davies to Wordsworth, writing: "He can write commonplace or inaccurate English, but it is also natural to him to write, such as Wordsworth wrote, with the clearness, compactness and felicity which make a man think with shame how unworthily, through natural stupidity or uncertainty, he manages his native tongue. In subtlety he abounds, and where else today shall we find simplicity like this?"
Honours and memorials
In 1926, Davies was honoured with the degree of Doctor Litteris, honoris causaHonorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
from the University of Wales
University of Wales
The University of Wales was a confederal university founded in 1893. It had accredited institutions throughout Wales, and formerly accredited courses in Britain and abroad, with over 100,000 students, but in October 2011, after a number of scandals, it withdrew all accreditation, and it was...
. Davies returned to his native Newport in 1930, where a luncheon was held in his honour at the Westgate Hotel
Westgate Hotel
The Westgate Hotel is a historic building in Newport city centre and is famous as the scene of the 1839 Chartist riot, the so-called Newport Rising.It is located at the bottom Stow Hill.-Building history:...
. He returned again in September 1938 for the unveiling of a plaque in his honour at the Church House Inn with an address given by the Poet Laureate John Masefield
John Masefield
John Edward Masefield, OM, was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1930 until his death in 1967...
. He was unwell, however, and this proved to be his last public appearance. His health deteriorated, not helped by the weight of his wooden leg, and he died in September 1940 at the age of 69. Never a church-goer in his adult life, Davies was cremated at Cheltenham
Cheltenham
Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...
and his remains interred there.
A large collection of Davies manuscripts, including a copy of Lesiure, dated 8 May 1914, is held by the National Library of Wales
National Library of Wales
The National Library of Wales , Aberystwyth, is the national legal deposit library of Wales; one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies.Welsh is its main medium of communication...
. The collection includes a copy of A Boy's Sorrow, an apparently unpublished poem of two eight-line stanzas relating to the death of a neighbour. Also included is a volume (c. 1916) containing autograph fair copies of 15 Davies poems, some of them apparently unpublished, submitted to James Guthrie (1874–1952) for publication by the Pear Tree Press as a collection entitled Quiet Streams, to which annotations have been added by Lord Kenyon.
A number of Davies' poems have been set to music. These include The Rain for voice and piano, by Margaret Campbell Bruce, published in 1951 by J. Curwen and Sons. A musical adapation of Leisure, with John Karvelas (vocals) and Nick Pitloglou (piano) and an animated film by Pipaluk Polanksi, may be found on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
.
A controversial statue by Paul Bothwell-Kincaid, inspired by the poem "Leisure", was unveiled in Commercial Street, Newport in December 1990 to commemorate Davies' work, on the 50th anniversary of his death. The bronze head of Davies by Epstein
Jacob Epstein
Sir Jacob Epstein KBE was an American-born British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902, becoming a British citizen in 1911. He often produced controversial works which challenged taboos on what was appropriate subject matter...
, from January 1917, regarded by many as the most accurate artistic impression of Davies and a copy of which Davies owned himself, may be found at Newport Museum and Art Gallery
Newport Museum
Newport Museum is a museum and art gallery in the city of Newport, Wales. It is located in Newport city centre on John Frost Square and is adjoined to the Kingsway Shopping Centre.-The museum collection:...
(donated by Viscount Tredegar
Godfrey Morgan, 1st Viscount Tredegar
Godfrey Charles Morgan, 1st Viscount Tredegar was a British Army officer and British politician.Tredegar was born on 28 April 1831 in Ruperra Castle, Glamorganshire...
).
In August 2010 the play Supertramp, Sickert and Jack the Ripper by Lewis Davies, concerning an imagined sitting by Davies for a portrait by Walter Sickert
Walter Sickert
Walter Richard Sickert , born in Munich, Germany, was a painter who was a member of the Camden Town Group in London. He was an important influence on distinctively British styles of avant-garde art in the 20th century....
, premiered at the Edinburgh Festival.
Works
- The Soul's Destroyer and Other Poems (of the author, The Farmhouse, 1905) (also Alston RiversAlston RiversAlston Rivers Ltd. was a London publishing firm. The firm originally consisted of the Hon L.J. Bathurst and R.B. Byles and had brought out the novels of Whyte Melville and the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. In 1904 it was reconstituted, with Bathurst and Archibald Marshall putting up the money and...
, 1907), (Jonathan Cape, 1921) - New Poems (Elkin Mathews, 1907)
- Nature Poems (Fifield, 1908)
- The Autobiography of a Super-TrampThe Autobiography of a Super-TrampThe Autobiography of a Super-Tramp is an autobiography published in 1908 by the Welsh poet and writer William Henry Davies...
(Fifield, 1908) (autobiographical) - How It Feels to be Out of Work (English Review 1, Dec 1908)
- Beggars (Duckworth, 1909) (autobiographical)
- Farewell to Poesy (Fifield, 1910)
- Songs of Joy and Others (Fifield, 1911)
- A Weak Woman (Duckworth, 1911)
- The True Traveller (Duckworth, 1912) (autobiographical)
- Foliage: Various Poems (Elkin Mathews, 1913)
- Nature (Batsford, 1914) (autobiographical)
- The Bird of Paradise (Methuen, 1914)
- Child Lovers (Fifield, 1916)
- Collected Poems (Fifield, 1916)
- A Poet's Pilgrimage (or A Pilgrimage In Wales) (Melrose, 1918) (autobiographical)
- Forty New Poems (Fifield, 1918)
- Raptures (Beaumont Press, 1918)
- The Song of Life (Fifield, 1920)
- The Captive Lion and Other Poems (Yale University PressYale University PressYale University Press is a book publisher founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day. It became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but remains financially and operationally autonomous....
, 1921) - Form (ed Davies and Austin O Spare, Vol 1, Numbers 1, 2 & 3, 1921/1922)
- The Hour of Magic (illustrated by Sir William Nicholson, Jonathan Cape, 1922)
- Shorter Lyrics of the Twentieth Century, 1900-1922 (ed Davies, Bodley Head, 1922) (anthology)
- True Travellers. A Tramp's Opera in Three Acts (illustrated by Sir William Nicholson, Jonathan Cape, 1923)
- Collected Poems, 1st Series (Jonathan Cape, 1923)
- Collected Poems, 2nd Series (Jonathan Cape, 1923)
- Selected Poems (illustrated with woodcuts by Stephen Bone, Jonathan Cape, 1923)
- `Poets and Critics' - New StatesmanNew StatesmanNew Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
, 21, (Sept 8th 1923) - What I Gained and Lost By Not Staying At School (Teachers World 29, June 1923)
- Secrets (Jonathan Cape, 1924)
- Moll Flanders, introduction by Davies (Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Co, 1924)
- A Poet's Alphabet (Jonathan Cape, 1925)
- Later Days (Jonathan Cape, 1925) (autobiographical)
- Augustan Book of Poetry: Thirty Selected Poems (BennErnest BennSir Ernest John Pickstone Benn, 2nd Baronet was a British publisher, writer and political publicist. His father, John Benn, was a politician, who had been made a baronet in 1914. He was an uncle of the Labour politician Tony Benn.-Biography:Benn was born in Oxted, Surrey...
, 1925) - The Song of Love (Jonathan Cape, 1926)
- The Adventures of Johnny Walker, Tramp (Jonathan Cape, 1926) (autobiographical)
- A Poet's Calendar (Jonathan Cape, 1927)
- Dancing Mad (Jonathan Cape, 1927)
- The Collected Poems of W. H. Davies (Jonathan Cape, 1928)
- Moss and Feather (Faber and GwyerFaber and FaberFaber and Faber Limited, often abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in the UK, notable in particular for publishing a great deal of poetry and for its former editor T. S. Eliot. Faber has a rich tradition of publishing a wide range of fiction, non fiction, drama, film and music...
(No. 10 in the Faber Ariel poemsAriel poems (Faber)The Ariel poems were a series of pamphlets published by Faber and Gwyer which contained illustrated poems....
pamphlet series, 1928) (illustrated by Sir William Nicholson) - Forty Nine Poems (selected and illustrated by Jancynth Parsons, Medici Society, 1928)
- Selected Poems (arranged by Edward GarnettEdward GarnettEdward Garnett was an English writer, critic and a significant and personally generous literary editor, who was instrumental in getting D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers published. His father Richard Garnett was a writer and librarian at the British Museum...
, introduction by Davies, Gregynog Press, 1928) - Ambition and Other Poems (Jonathan Cape, 1929)
- Jewels Of Song (Jonathan Cape, 1930)
- In Winter (Fytton Armstrong, 1931) (limited edition illustrated and hand-coloured by Edward Carrick)
- Poems 1930-31 (illustrated by Elizabeth Montgomery, Jonathan Cape, 1931)
- The Lover's Song Book (Gregynog Press, 1933)
- My Birds (with engravings by Hilda M. Quick, Jonathan Cape, 1933)
- My Garden (with illustrations by Hilda M. Quick, Jonathan Cape, 1933)
- `Memories' - School, (1, Nov 1933)
- The Poems of W. H. Davies: A Complete Collection (Jonathan Cape, 1934)
- Love Poems (Jonathan Cape, 1935)
- The Birth of Song (Jonathan Cape, 1936)
- `Epilogue' to The Romance of the Echoing Wood, (a Welsh tale by W. J. T. Collins, R. H. Johns Ltd, 1937)
- The Loneliest Mountain (Jonathan Cape, 1939)
- Collected Poems (Jonathan Cape, 1940)
- Common Joys and Other Poems (Faber and FaberFaber and FaberFaber and Faber Limited, often abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in the UK, notable in particular for publishing a great deal of poetry and for its former editor T. S. Eliot. Faber has a rich tradition of publishing a wide range of fiction, non fiction, drama, film and music...
, 1941) - Complete Poems of W. H. Davies (Jonathan Cape, 1962)
- Young Emma (Jonathan Cape, written 1924, published 1980) (autobiographical)
Sources
- Harlow, S. (1993), W. H. Davies - a Bibliography, Winchester, Oak Knoll Books, St.Paul's Bibliographies. ISBN 1-873040-00-8.
- Hockey, L. (1971), W. H. Davies, University of Wales Press (on behalf of the Welsh Arts Council), (limited edition of 750).
- Hooper, B. (2004), Time to Stand and Stare: A Life of W. H. Davies with Selected Poems, London, Peter Owen Ltd., ISBN 0-72061-205-5.
- Moult, T. (1934), W. H. Davies, London, Thornton Butterworth.
- Normand, L. (2003), W. H. Davies, Bridgend: Poetry Wales Press Ltd, ISBN 1-85411-260-0
- Stonesifer, R.J. (1963), W. H. Davies - A Critical Biography, London, Jonathan Cape. (first full biography of Davies), ISBN B0000CLPA3.
External links
- Davies collection held by Newport Museum
- Archive held by Gloucestershire County Council
- Davies archive at the National Library of Wales
- The Times 8 May 2008 "The Autobiography of a Super-tramp by W.H. Davies". Review
- W H Davies: BBC profile
- BBC, 1 September 2010 "Campaign to save last home of poet WH Davies".