Selected Poems

by Cunard, Nancy; Parmar, Sandeep;

  Parallax

  NC’s archived manuscript carries the original title of ‘The Sempiternal Fool’. NC also indicates that the poem was at least partly written in Italy in 1923, most likely the two sections she chose to reprint in the Bodleian / Augustan Manuscript of 1944, which is reproduced in The Poems of Nancy Cunard: From the Bodleian Library, Trent Editions, 2005 (‘Dry moss […] no epitaph.’ and ‘Then I was in a train […] I had you to myself then.’). One typescript of the entire poem gives the address of her apartment at 2 Rue le Regrattier, Paris, so it seems likely that NC completed the poem in Paris and changed the title retrospectively.

  Poems Two 1925

  ‘In Provins’ according to NC’s notes was published in The New Coterie, London, no. 2, Spring 1926. ‘Simultaneous’ was written in Wansford-in-England, Autumn 1924 and first published in The Outlook, London, 13 Aug 1927 and in The New Coterie, No 6, London, Summer and Autumn number, 1927.

  Relève into Maquis

  Composed in London, February 1944 and published by Grasshopper Press, Derby, June 1944. Later, in the 1944 Bodleian /Augustan Manuscript, NC retitled the poem ‘The Relève and the Maquis’, and there are certain significant variants from stanza 2 onwards:

  And a mean wind blew doubt: ‘Some of it’s true?

  No, it is blackmail, lies.’ And the months crept.

  ‘…Or perhaps one may claim a prisoner? Then if so

  Three of us go, if Jean…?’ But no. Meanwhile

  One million and a quarter prisoners stay in the Reich;

  In France comes hunger to sit between nerve and flesh,

  Press-gangs for labour, food-cards taken away,

  Reprisals on a wife, eight guillotines

  Travel the land (till then there had been one),

  Shootings and hitting back – But it’s always: NO.

  In July of ’42 the first train comes,

  La Relève out of Germany! Blazed in the traitor press,

  Staged at Compiegne where Hitler signed and stamped

  With fist and foot his Armistice sham as Fascism.

  How many men in that train? Three hundred, packed

  like a load of curses, sick, and half un-limbed.

  He sat in a fireless kitchen head in hands

  ‘From under our feet the ground… and France is done…

  Is done? Is down. But I live. I’ll fight against that.’

  Just before dawn he unearthed the rabbit gun

  And his old revolver blessed by Spain, and went –

  To the high lands by the goat track, a wind of decision

  Blowing dawn into day. ‘Wife and life now these two…’

  Gun and pistol under knee he sat after the four-hour trek

  Till a boy surged calling ‘Password?’

  So the new rhythm began –’We’re not a hundred miles from Vichy’

  ‘Nor a hundred months from freedom.’ Thus into concourse

  Of camp – some sixty, some of sixteen, but mainly those of the young twenties:

  Ceux du Maquis, francs-tireurs, partisans, guerillas,

  ‘Refractories to law and order’ Vichy calls them;

  Into the Secret Army the months have made them.

  Man Ship Tank Gun Plane

  Dedicated to NC’s friend the poet and editor of Ernest Benn’s Augustan poetry imprint, Edward John Thompson. Comp. March 1944 in East Chaldon, Dorchester, pub. by NC in Yeovil, Somerset, 22 April 1944 in an edition of 400. Variants of the title exist among NC’s manuscripts, including instances in which the letterspaces in the title are replaced by ‘=’s or ‘–’s. The notes to the Trent edition, written by John Lucas, state that Alun Lewis and Nordahl Grieg were both poets who died whilst on active service in the 1940s.

  From the Bodleian Manuscript

  In a letter to Thomas Moult on 2 Dec 194[?], NC writes: ‘I never met Katherine Mansfield, though I admired her writings very much indeed. Since all that time I have met Gurdjiev, in Paris; on another tack he was rather, and I did not like him at all. As to my own poems – there seems to be a good chance now of some of them being published, but I have not yet heard quite definitely. It would be a selection; only two or three of the older ones, and the rest poems since 1936, and some recent ones; some of them have appeared in the Statesman and other reviews here and abroad, some, never. Besides this I am getting them into final form, for a volume called “The Lands That Were Today”. I think about 40, and very different indeed to the earlier days. Everything I have is in France, and probably gone for ever, as my house is in Normandy, and was looted. So everything being also out of print it seems a perfect caesura.’ The manuscript in question is likely to be the one now held in the Edward Thompson papers at the Bodleian Library. The manuscript was meant for Thompson’s Augustan modern poetry editions, but it never saw publication.

  ‘Love’s Alba against Time, Time’s against Love’: Comp. 1929. Lines 13–14 (‘And as Aragon has it / Aima, ai-ma’) are a quotation from Louis Aragon’s ‘Poem a crier dans les ruins’ (1929), published around the time that Aragon’s and Cunard’s love affair ended.

  ‘Love, Death, Time, Weather’: Comp. 1929.

  ‘Between Time and Etc’: ‘Dowson’ refers to the poet Ernest Dowson (1867–1900).

  ‘Tell It, Glen’: Comp. May 1934 at Réanville. The Trent edition note suggests that this poem was written on the occasion of the fifth National Hunger March (Glasgow to London, January 1934).

  ‘And Also Faustus’: Comp. June 1935 at Réanville. NC’s dedication and note: ‘To Tristan Tzara, after his great speech on “The Meaning of the Poem in Life”, at the 1st Writers Congress in Defence of Culture, June 24, 1935, in Paris.’

  ‘Yes, It Is Spain’: Comp. August 1937 at Réanville, pub. Life and Letters Today, October 1938. Translated into Spanish, pub. Aurora de Chile, Santiago, Chile, summer 1940.

  ‘To Eat Today’: NC notes on the manuscript: ‘Written during the air-raid of 13 Sept 1938, in the Hotel Majestic, Barcelona at lunch.’ Pub. The New Statesman, 1 Oct 1938.

  ‘Pamiatnik – Memorial of the Bittersweet’: Comp. 1937, Réanville. In pencil NC has written at the bottom of the typescript: ‘My house my house… Where are you now my house? June 1940.’ Versions in Cunard’s archive replace ‘zone’ with ‘seam’ in line 13.

  ‘E O S’: Comp. Paris 1938 and London 1943. Eos is the Greek goddess of dawn.

  ‘Sequences from a Long Epic on Spain’: Comp. 1937–39, according to NC’s typescript table of contents. In one manuscript version, ‘November Something’ reads ‘November ’36’ in ‘December 1936, Madrid’. Curiously, the Trent edition does not include the section about the Republican aviator, in spite of its presence in the Bodleian manuscript. Perhaps the editors were concerned by the gruesome nature of the facts.

  ‘The Lands That Were Today’: Comp. September 1939 at Réanville. Kay Boyle (1902–1992) was an American poet, novelist, journalist, and political activist. Boyle and NC were close friends from 1923 onwards. For more on Boyle’s life and work, see Thomas Austenfeld’s Kay Boyle for the Twenty-First Century: New Essays (Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2008) and Sandra Spanier’s Kay Boyle: Artist and Activist (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1986).

  ‘Journey to the New World’: NC’s archived typescript bears the heading ‘A later sequence in the Poem on Spain’ and a possible composition date in NC’s hand pencilled in the margin, ‘July 1936’.

  ‘The Chilean Sonnets’: Comp. 1940. NC travelled to Chile in 1940 and it seems likely that these sonnets were written during or just after her visit. NC’s note: ‘In January 1939 a cataclysmic earthquake wrecked the town of Chillán, eight hours to the south of Santiago. When I was there a year and a half later, people still stood (in the rain) thinking: “how to rebuild?” Nothing can be more tragic than these ruins. Nothing? That very week the Germans were surging over France, laying new ruins on a gigantic scale. Of these things one would talk with the people of Chillán, and with the warm-hearted rotos of Chi
le. The roto is the name given to the poor man of Chile, the descendant of the Indians and the Conquistadores; literally “the broken one”. The poet is Arturo Gardoqui, one of Chile’s most lyrical poets. I have seen the ruins of the house in which he was buried alive, seen them with him. But soon we were forgetting all this for the anguish of France; it was in June, 1940. (June 6, 1940. Concón, Pacific. Chile.) “Amaranth of Sunset”: (1940) (Mijito: my very dear, a Chillenism)’.

  ‘Psalm for Trinidad’: included in NC’s book Psalm of the Palms. NC’s notes indicate that the poem was composed in ‘Maraval, Trinidad, Feb. La Havana, Cuba, July 1941. This and the following three sonnets were privately published in an edition of 50 in La Habana, Cuba, in July 1941.’

  ‘“How Long?” Is Not “For Ever”’: Comp. according to NC’s notes in ‘Barbados, March 1941. Published in a West Indian paper at the time.’

  ‘Less Than the Slave’: NC’s note indicates the poem was written at ‘Wilhelmstad, Curacoa, May, 1941. Remembering Lily in the cocoawoods in Trinidad.’

  ‘To Alfred Cruickshank’: Comp. Maraval, Trinidad, January 1941. NC notes: ‘Published in The People, Trinidad, and a Teacher’s Journal, at the time.)’ Alfred Cruickshank (1880–1940) was a Trinidadian poet.

  ‘14 Juillet 1941’: NC notes on her manuscript that ‘(Victor Hugo is loved in Cuba by the people, for he protested against the continuation of slavery there in many of his writings. There is a bust of him, with some words of his in one of the little squares in El Vedado, Habana. Here, this 14th of July 1941, after an immense demonstration in the streets in honour of France, they brought flowers, mainly red flowers, to Victor Hugo.)’

  ‘Fragment in the Old World’: Comp. December 1941 in London. An earlier typescript is titled ‘Walking in Craven St, Strand’: ‘(A short series called “Nights”. For Morris Gilbert, “Whiles absence”.’ This is most likely the American journalist, Morris Gilbert, with whom Cunard was in a relationship in the 1940s.

  ‘Incarnations’: Comp. February–November 1942 in London. In a letter to Miriam Benkovitz, NC remarks that the poem was ‘written to, and of, such a dear, beloved man, American, whom I knew then well.’ A typescript of the poem reads ‘Love Poem’ and then in NC’s hand: ‘For and to Morris’.

  ‘Whose Desert?’: Comp. November 1942 in London. NC notes: ‘The Moors of Spanish Morocco have twice been involved in wars since the beginning of this century against Spain. The war of the Riff which lasted over 20 years and could only be won by Spain due to French aid, waged by the Spanish Monarchist regime against the Arabs, and detested by the soldiers and masses of the Spanish people. Then the war of Fascist Intervention, led by Franco and other rebel generals, which bled Spanish Morocco dry of men and sent scores of thousands of them to their death against the Spanish Republicans in a war execrated by them. The roumis are the “foreigners”. Hussein is in the fighting against the Germans in Tunisia. Accidiae are certain evil spirits in Arab lore. The Shott Jerid is a huge, impressive, now-dry, now-watery salt-marsh. (I have been in it with Norman Douglas.) Maitre Tahar is a Tunisian Arab lawyer musing on Darlan and Allied policy and on the future of his country, a protectorate (in rags) of France.’

  ‘Dordogne’: NC’s note reads: ‘(1930, 1943) Maquisards: Those who have taken to the maquis, the wilds; in this case the cause – to defy the Nazis’ and Vichy’s order to go to forced labour in Germany. Today thousands are in the maquis in various parts of France, many of them in the Limousin, the region around much of the Dordogne river. Often they have defeated the armed guards, German and Vichy, sent to bring them in by force. They are organised, helped by the population of whatever region they are in.’

  Previously Unpublished or Uncollected Poems

  ‘Soldiers Fallen in Battle’: NC’s first published poem. The Eton College Chronicle, June 1916. Comp. 1915 and published alongside ‘Sonnet’ (‘This is no time for prayer or words or song…’).

  ‘Remorse’ and ‘Uneasiness’: Comp. 1915–1916. Originally published in Wheels (Oxford: Blackwell Books, 1916), ed. Edith Sitwell.

  ‘Brigit’: On a typed copy of the poem NC has written: ‘Sent Derek and Brigit Feb 22, 1965’. Possibly this poem is for Brigit Patmore, the poet Richard Aldington’s one-time companion.

  ‘Victor and Nancy at Pertenhall’: NC notes that this is ‘A sort of letter – though to whom? 7 days later I knew, for you were here, Rosemary, how unexpectedly!’ Comp. at Villa Pomone in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, ‘with music playing, night, Dec 21, 1963, at one go’.

  ‘Pain Sonnets’: These are likely comp. 1964, whilst NC was convalescing after a fall and leg surgery. Around this time, in January 1964, NC began her proposed long poem ‘The Visions’ (or ‘Cosmo’s Dream’). In her manuscripts she writes about what might be these pain sonnets, intended at one time to be part of ‘The Visions’: ‘And not here, but typed already, half of the pages in pre-final order, are the very many sequences of the long poem “The Visions”, which began to be written immediately after leg accident – including the sonnet on Pain and the two others on pain. David Garnett had been, from distant parts of Spain, to visit Clive Bell in Mentone and came to see me at Pomone. We talked about poetry and about what I was writing then. Reflectively he said “not many poets have written about pain”.’

  ‘To Professor Bernelot Moens’: Comp. 7 July 1934 at Réanville.

  ‘To Douglas Cooper from Nancy Cunard’: Comp. 3 Jan 1964 at Villa Pomone. Douglas Cooper (1911–1984) was a British art critic and friend of NC’s.

  ‘For Douglas Cooper’: Comp. early December 1963 at Villa Pomone. Sent to Cooper, with a note, 8 Dec 1963.

  ‘Passport to Freedom’: NC’s note on the typescript: ‘In “Passport to Freedom” (temporary title of unfinished book of poems to 6 countries). Lindsay Drummond said he would publish it, IF enough subscriptions were to come in. I wanted the photo-montages of the superb German Hertzfield (John Heartfield) one to each poem. (Nov 16.) “France” was published in The New Statesmen, Jan 17, 1942. “Italy” (the 2 first sonnets only in The New Statesman” (see date elsewhere). “Russia” was published in a special folder made by John St John Woods, for sale for aid to Russia (Mrs Churchill’s), early in 1942 (?). “Spain” likewise. There would not have been much more to it than what stands here: “Soldier, poor soldier” sequence. As for the poem to the USA, I got no further than the beautiful, classical known line of “Up from the grassy roots”.’ The typescript table of contents of Passport to Freedom ‘1941–42–43 London’ lists them in order: ‘France Qui dit Haine di Resistance’ then U.S.S.R, then Italy, then Spain, Germany, England, U.S.A.’

  ‘France’: Comp. 16 November 1941 in London. Dedicated to Louis Aragon. Published in translation in Poemes a la France, Seghers, Paris, 1947.

  ‘Italy’ 1: Comp. London, 28 November–30 December 1941. NC notes this was published in The New Statesman, May 1942.

  ‘Italy’ 2: Comp. 30 December 1941 – 22 February 1942 in London.

  ‘Italy’ 3: NC notes this was published in New Times, May 1942.

  ‘Russia – The U.S.S.R.’: Comp. 19 January 1942 in London.

  ‘Spain’: NC’s typescript notes: ‘dedicated to Spain and to Sam Wild’.

  ‘Germany’: NC notes that this was published in Life and Letters Today, London, Summer 1943.

  ‘England’: NC notes that this poem is written ‘In the dialect, more or less, or rather, in the accent of the Leicestershire Midlands. 21–22 March, Wansford. 1942.’ She adds the performance note: ‘The “Soldier, poor soldier”, between each line should be done in drum-taps. Till the last one ends on a different note of the drum.’

  ‘The Poet to His Wars’: Comp. April 1962 in Toulouse. John Gawsworth (1912–1970) was a British poet and anthologist who served in the Royal Air Force during World War II.

  ‘Three Prison Sonnets’: Comp. 21 February – 2 March in Palma, Mallorca. Solita Solano (1888–1975) was a poet and journalist and good friend of NC. NC was in Palma at various times between 1957 and 19
60.

  ‘By Their Faces Shall Ye Know Them’: typescript dated 26 February, Palma.

  ‘In the Watches of the Night’: Comp. Spring 1960 in England.

  ‘Order’: Comp. 26 April 1960, Café Royal in London.

  ‘To Whom?’: Comp. 9 May 1960 in London.

  ‘Portrait-Sonnet’: Comp. 9 May 1960 in London.

  ‘8 AM Sonnet’: Comp. 16 June 1960 at Holloway Sanatorium, Virginia Water.

  ‘From Afar’: Comp. 1919–1920. NC notes that this poem was published in an English or American Review but does not give the title.

  ‘Of Liberty’: Comp. 1920 or 1921, pub. The Saturday Review, 18 August 1923.

  ‘Saintes De La Mer’: Possible comp. date pencilled in NC’s hand is 1921.

  ‘Aigues Mortes’: Pub. The Nation and Athenaeum, London, 14 May 1921.

  ‘Transimene’: Comp. March 1923 in Cortona, pub. The Saturday Review, 2 June 1923.

  ‘When We Must Go Our Ways’: Possible comp. date given as 1921, pub. The Saturday Review, 28 Oct 1922.

  ‘The Solitary’: Possible comp. date given as 1921, pub. The New Statesman, 28 Oct 1922.

  ‘The White Cat’: Comp. Summer 1923 at Varengeville, Normandy, pub. The Best Poems of 1924, ed. L. A. G. Strong, Boston, USA.

  ‘Wansford Bridge Spring’: Comp. March 1923, Wansford, England.

  ‘Looking at a Photograph in the Same Dress 1928–1926’: Comp. Christmas 1928 in Paris. NC notes that this poem is ‘for Henry’, most likely the jazz musician Henry Crowder.