Only the wanderer
Knows England's graces,
Or can anew see clear
Familiar Faces.
And who loves joy as he
That dwells in shadows?
Do not forget me quite,
O Severn meadows.


from `Song'

Ivor Gurney's poetic career was unusual. It began in 1917 and 1919 with two small volumes of verse, Severn and Somme and War's Embers. After that, though he planned further books, none appeared until Edmund Blunden's 1954 Selected Poems. By then Gurney, who entered an asylum in 1922, had been dead for 17 years.

Carcanet, in association with MidNAG, has sought to recreate what would have been Gurney's poetic trajectory, issuing not only his War Letters and Collected Letters, but the books he did publish, and those he would have published had he been able to do so. This volume includes his 1917 and 1919 books, while later volumes, rather than merely select from the mass of archive material, follow his changing instructions and present the oeuvre as he might have wished it.

Gurney's musical training -- with Herbert Howells, under Stanford at the Royal College of Music -- saw him writing songs and setting others' lyrics. He heard and read the Georgians. Then the War came and in 1916, as a private in the 2nd/5th Gloucesters, he began the service which more or less stopped his musical career. In 1917 he was gassed at Ypres and posted back to England. Within five years he had entered the Dartford mental hospital where he ended his days.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements



A Brief Chronology



Introduction



SEVERN & SOMME



Title page of first edition

Preface

To Certain Comrades

The Fire Kindled

To the Poet before Battle

Maisemore

Afterwards

Carol

Strange service

Serenity

The Signaller's Vision

The Mother

To England - A Note

Bach and the Sentry

Letters

Stafe

Acquiescence

The Strong Thing

Scots

To an Unknown Lady

Song and Pain

Purple and Black

West Country

Firelight

The Estaminet

Song

Ballad of the Three Spectres

Communion

Time and the Soldier

Influences

After-Glow

Hail and Farewell

Praise

Winter Beauty

Song of Pain and Beauty

Spring. Rouen, May 1917

June-To-Come

"Hark, Hark, the Lark"

Song at Morning

Trees

Requiem

Requiem

Requiem

Sonnets 1917

            1 For England

            2 Pain

            3 Servitude

            4 Home-Sickness

            5 England the Mother



WAR'S EMBERS



Title page of first edition

Dedication: To M.M.S.

The Volunteer

The Farm

Omens

Eternal Treasure

Fire in the Dusk

Turmut-Hoeing

In a Ward

Camps

Girl's Song

Solace of Men

Day-boys and Choristers

At Reserve Depot

Toasts and Memories

From the Window

Ypres-Minsterworth

Near Midsummer

Toussaints

The Stone-Breaker

Drifting Leaves

Contrasts

To F.W.H.

The Immortal Hour

To His Love

Migrants

Old Martinmas Eve

After Music

The Target

Twigworth Vicarage

Hospital Pictures:

1 Ladies of Charity

2 Dust

3 "Aberdonian"

4 Companion - North=east Dugout

5 The Miner

6 Upstairs Piano

Hidden Tales

Recompense

The Tryst

The Plain

Rumours of Wars

"On Rest"

Dicky

The Day for Victory

Passionate Earth

The Poplar

Down Commercial Road (Gloucester)

From Omiecourt

Le Coq Francais

The Fisherman of Newnham

The Lock-keeper

The Revellers

"Annie Laurie"

The Battalion is Now on Rest

Photographs

That Country

Interval

De Profundis

The Tower



Commentary

Map

The Composition of Severn & Somme

Notes to Severn & Somme

The Composition of War's Embers

Notes to War's Embers

Further Reading

Index of Titles and First Lines