AUDEN, Wystan Hugh (1907-1973). Autograph manuscript of four poems or sections of a longer poem, untitled, n.p., n.d., first lines 'You meet a lady in September', 'The clapper in the old church tower nearby', 'London Bridge is broken down', and 'At last the Kings most georgeously march down', 49 lines on two pages, 4to , on a bifolium (some discolouration and wear to folds), professionally restored and mounted; and an autograph letter signed to Robert Medley Berlin-Dahlem, 8 February n.y. [1965], one page, folio . The letter refers to the death of T.S. Eliot, 'I've heard the news from that bloody female V[era] R[ussell], and discusses his contributions to a memorial programme of readings 'I haven't settled on my exact choice yet (I must get the Collected T.S.E. out of the British Council library) but -- to go on with -- it will certainly include Gerontion , Marina , Coriolan '. There is no indication as to the date of the poems, but the hand suggests a considerably earlier date. The first of the poems alternates cryptic advice with snatches of demotic speech ('Ah yer nasty long necked thing'); the second is in four-line stanzas, an apocalyptic scene -- 'The clapper in the old church tower nearby (which ever pushes at the tidal sky) Clangs like a rusty gate to scourge Doom on To lead away the idiotic sun'; the third is a riff on the nursery rhymes 'London Bridge' and 'Banbury Cross'; the fourth returns to the metre and tone of the second section. Robert Medley was a close friend of Auden's from their days at Gresham's; they collaborated in the Group Theatre, for which Medley designed the sets. (2)
AUDEN, Wystan Hugh (1907-1973). Autograph manuscript of four poems or sections of a longer poem, untitled, n.p., n.d., first lines 'You meet a lady in September', 'The clapper in the old church tower nearby', 'London Bridge is broken down', and 'At last the Kings most georgeously march down', 49 lines on two pages, 4to , on a bifolium (some discolouration and wear to folds), professionally restored and mounted; and an autograph letter signed to Robert Medley Berlin-Dahlem, 8 February n.y. [1965], one page, folio . The letter refers to the death of T.S. Eliot, 'I've heard the news from that bloody female V[era] R[ussell], and discusses his contributions to a memorial programme of readings 'I haven't settled on my exact choice yet (I must get the Collected T.S.E. out of the British Council library) but -- to go on with -- it will certainly include Gerontion , Marina , Coriolan '. There is no indication as to the date of the poems, but the hand suggests a considerably earlier date. The first of the poems alternates cryptic advice with snatches of demotic speech ('Ah yer nasty long necked thing'); the second is in four-line stanzas, an apocalyptic scene -- 'The clapper in the old church tower nearby (which ever pushes at the tidal sky) Clangs like a rusty gate to scourge Doom on To lead away the idiotic sun'; the third is a riff on the nursery rhymes 'London Bridge' and 'Banbury Cross'; the fourth returns to the metre and tone of the second section. Robert Medley was a close friend of Auden's from their days at Gresham's; they collaborated in the Group Theatre, for which Medley designed the sets. (2)
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
