Volume 2, Issue 2 Comet July 31st 2007

Comet: the Newsletter of the Norman Nicholson Society Special points of interest: Norman Nicholson and School: Memories by Keith Jackson  Nicholson’s interest in It was in the early 1960s poetry, commenting on location which, not so Millom School— that I first met Norman its rhythm and saying long ago, returned vividly Memories by Keith Nicholson. I had just been how it suited the to my mind on reading Jackson appointed as Head of occasion for which it was “The Pot Geranium”. This M u s i c a t M i l l o m written. I realised straight made me realise the  Doreen Cornthwaite’s Comprehensive School and away what a great extent and nature of the Gift to the Norman found myself amongst honour this was! In privations the poet, gifted and committed c o n v e rs a t io n w i t h Nicholson Archive— by w h o s e c l o s e colleagues. These included colleagues I had heard acquaintance my wife Stella Halkyard Tom Foster and Yvonne about the poet Norman and I had made, had to  Nicholson’s Nicholson, who were in Nicholson and his strong endure in his earlier life. charge of the Middle commitment to the Tempted by a career influence— by Philip School. It was Yvonne who region he loved and its opportunity in further Houghton approached me and got me people. And here he was education, I left Millom in to organise the music for a suddenly in person – Nicholson’s the mid–1960s for the  drama production, which with words so friendly urban West Midlands. My Norwegian Trip— an featured popular songs and constructive! wife and I had made extract from a letter to (including “Hit the Road, We met on several several friends and now Jack”) and acted scenes. I Doreen Cornthwaite occasions after this. we were to lose them. recall inventing a scene Yvonne was extremely Sadly for us, very sadly in  Reports on events which involved space travel helpful and organised retrospect now that we (popular at the time!) and Noah’s family and the have really got to know  Cowper’s Tame Hare wrote some verses for the gossiping ladies in our and love his poetry, these — by David Scott children to recite. production of Noye’s i n c l u d e d N o r m a n After the performance Fludde in Millom Parish Nicholson. Yvonne and her husband Church. I recall visiting N o r m a n N i c h o l s o n Norman and Yvonne in approached me. Norman their flat above the shop Gilbert Keith Jackson complimented me on my in the Market Place – the Cockermouth, April 2007

It is just over a year ago now that the A YEAR OF CELEBRATIONS have helped enormously to increase Norman Nicholson Society was the interest. inaugurated and only six months since took place this June at Crooklands, The Norman Nicholson Archive is the launch of our year of celebrations Milnthorpe. A synopsis of the lectures on January 6th 2007, marking the growing — a fabulous resource for will appear in the next issue of Comet researchers and for all those who have 20th anniversary of Nicholson’s death. In quite a short period of time it Thanks to Michael Baron’s persistence, a real interest in Nicholson’s life and has become evident that the interest Nicholson was mentioned at the Words art. Please do read Stella Halkyard’s in Nicholson is beginning to grow by the Water Festival in March and a wonderful description of the Doreen again. The society has organized talks reading of the long poem “To the River Cornthwaite Gift. by a number of distinguished Duddon” was given. The Duddon Local More events are planned for the speakers, including Professor Brian History Society, again in March, invited remainder of the year, including the Whalley, Irvine Hunt, Neil Curry and a Norman Nicholson Society committee Heritage Open Days in September in the young scholar and academic, member to give a lecture on his Life and David Cooper. We are particularly Millom, the Day Festival in October, Works— and this was very well attended and the trip to the John Rylands excited about our collaboration with and appreciated. And the excellent Lancaster University’s North-West Nicholson Archive in December. Centre for Regional Studies and the article on Nicholson by Sue Allan in the Further information about recent and full day of lectures on Nicholson which new Arts Magazine CA must forthcoming events is inside this issue. Page 2 Comet

Quotations from Reading off “concealed energies” Nicholson’s book on In Winter Pollen (ed. William Scammell), that of the Common Ground William Cowper, published talks about how “works of organization, “internationally recognised by John Lehmann, imaginative literature” can be “a set of for playing a unique role in the arts and London 1951 dials on the front of society, where we environmental fields, distinguished by can read off concealed energies”, and the linking of nature with culture”. They Nicholson is describing Cowper’s how “What happens in the imagination have published an anthology of poetry relationship to the natural world: of those individuals chosen by the about rivers, The River’s Voice, which unconscious part of society to be its includes two of Nicholson’s poems writers, is closely indicative of what is (‘Beck’ and ‘To the River Duddon’), … The world ceased to be a view, happening to the hidden energies of the placing his poems in an extremely ceased to be a landscape at all, and society as a whole.” interesting and broad literary context. became something as real and Further searching of their website leads When one tries to track Nicholson’s work one to England in Particular “a kind of individual as man himself. (p. 127) and reputation on the Internet, it is encyclopaedia of LOCAL DISTINCTIVE- extremely interesting to see how his NESS”. I “read off” the same energy in … [hares] caught when young and poems and other writings can be used to these words, as I have done for many ‘”read off concealed energies” and how years in Nicholson’s writings. AF tamed by the poet. They helped, Nicholson’s thought is related to that of almost as much as poetry, to distract other writers, past and present. Websites: https:// him from his melancholy… through One website I have been led to by www.commonground.org.uk/archive/ searching for references to Nicholson is rivers/; http:// his tame hares he got an insight into www.englandinparticular.info/ the world of all sentient beings… [he realised that] an animal has a Rocks to the East— a talk by Professor Brian Whalley self which is not just a projection of Clad in black leathers, helmeted, and geological time with masterly man. (p. 143) gleaming with scientific enthusiasm, concision and clarity of language, Professor Brian Whalley, of Queen’s simultaneously showing us how … When he became aware of the University, Belfast, zoomed down the deeply Nicholson understood the objective existence of the world winding roads leading to Millom in science of geology, and how around him, he did not look upon it order to spend the afternoon with the accurate his geological images and as material for his mind and his NN Society, and demonstrate to its perceptions are. members the geological foundations senses to work on. Instead, he felt Although Professor Whalley made a of much of Norman Nicholson’s disclaimer at the start of his lecture, that he owed a moral responsibility writings. It was Saturday, May 12th, saying that he was by no means a to that world, as if his religion had a bright and sunny day, the Sea to literary critic, his knowledge of commanded him to love not only his the West glittering and the Rocks to Nicholson’s work was profound, and the East (Brian Whalley’s clever title neighbour but his neighbourhood. not only set in the context of the (p. 164) for his talk) clearly visible as fells and science of geology but also against mountains on the horizon. the writings of other poets who have The links to Nicholson’s own Although this was not the best used references to stone and rock in philosophy are, I believe, very attended event the society has their work (Edwin Morgan, Miroslav clear here and it is interesting to organized, those of us who were able Holub, W.H. Auden, Arnold and Pope perceive the possibly unexpected to be there were temporarily were all mentioned). influence on Nicholson of this transformed into eager students as Nicholson understood the deep time 18th century poet. See pages 4 we were initiated into the marvels of of geology, and set our human lives and 5 for extracts from Cowper’s the everyday geology which forms the against this as “misty minutes”, not own writing on hares — and fabric of towns such as Millom. On a insignificant but incomprehensibly tour round the town, guided by page 8 for David Scott’s tiny, unsolid and unclear in Professor Whalley, we saw and interpretation of Nicholson’s comparison to the rocks on which we touched examples of sedimentary, beautiful poem “The Tame are based. Nicholson’s geological igneous and metamorphic rocks, and Hare”, which is also known as a n d g e o m o r p h o l o g i c a l began to understand more deeply “Cowper’s Tame Hare”, and is understanding of landscape is so how Nicholson’s view of the local led the second of two poems that precise that, as Professor Whalley him literally into the universal, how Nicholson wrote about William stated, many of his poems could be time and space coalesce in the rocks Cowper. There are references to used in geology textbooks. both Nicholson and Cowper on of public and private buildings, in Ruth Padel’s web-page about paving stone and slated rooves. The Society is very grateful to Professor Whalley for spending time h t t p : / / Back in the Guide Hall for the h a r e s : with us in such an illuminating, illustrated lecture, Professor Whalley www.ruthpadel.com/pages/ entertaining and informative Hare_Hunted.htm AF unfolded millions of years of manner. AF Volume 2, Issue 2 Page 3

Nicholson and From William Norman Nicholson was Down in the valleys it top end of Settersdal, Cowper’s “Account fascinated by certain was like an oven, and on about 2,500 feet up, at of the Treatment of aspects of his inheritance, the uplands, where we a place that was almost his Hares” - first especially the strong links spent most of our time, Alpine, with a famous printed in the with a Nordic past which he it was still hot enough wooden church, old perceived as surviving in Gentleman’s the Cumbrian culture and for people to be sun- wooden houses, and, in Magazine, May 28th dialects. On the rare bathing on rugs, lying a fir tree just outside 1784 occasions when Nicholson out on the snow. our bedroom window, a travelled abroad he chose Nobody under sixty, in pair of fieldfares to visit Norway, first going Norway, wears anything nesting. We were able Puss grew presently there in 1965 for a coastal but a bikini for sun- to watch them feeding familiar, would leap into tour and then again in bathing, of course, and their young… […] my lap, raise himself upon 1974, after being awarded down by the coast we Finally we had ten days his hinder feet, and bite the a Travelling Scholarship had the impression that worth £500 from the shared among three hair from my temples. He the young married Society of Authors. different places among would suffer me to take women come down to the mountains of him up, and to carry him The following extracts from sun-bathe for an hour or Telemark, and these, in a letter which Nicholson so each mid-day. The about in my arms, and has spite of all that had wrote to his cousin, Doreen first part of the holiday more than once fallen fast Cornthwaite, show him gone before, were the was spent chiefly asleep upon my knee. He engaging with the land- highlight of the month. among the valleys of the was ill three days, during scape, with the language In our last place we s ou th —d eep, lon g and with the customs of were staying at a Turist- which time I nursed him, valleys with many lakes, the people. At every point stasjon, a rather kept him apart from his like Ullswater though he is not only attracted to primitive, but not too fellows, that they might not what is unusual and foreign longer, and all the steep uncomfortable ski-ing molest him, (for, like but is also searching for granite sides wooded hut, just at the very level similarities to his own right up to 2,000 ft— many other wild animals, of the snow-line. In the place, people and thick conifer woods up they persecute one of their hot sun the snow was language. Notice in to about that level kind that is sick), and by particular his pointing up of being stripped off the where the birch takes constant care, and by the Nordic origins of mountains and was over, gradually thinning “thwaite” and “tarn”: pounding down in water- trying him with a variety out to the dwarf birch—a fall after waterfall. On of herbs, restored him to July 27th 1974 separate species only the higher passes, perfect health. No six inches high—at We could scarcely however, there were creature could be more 3,000. Then on our forget you in Norway: still snowdrifts ten to second week we spent grateful than my patient there were tveits, i.e. twenty feet high at the five days on the coast of after his recovery; a “thwaites” in nearly side of the road— the the Skaggerak, which is sentiment which he most every valley… […] roads themselves were a maze of fjords with quite clear— and the ice significantly expressed by The four weeks in thousands of small was just beginning to licking my hand, first the Norway are never to be islands and skerries. melt on the tarns — they back of it, then the palm, forgotten. To begin Two merchant seamen call them ‘tjerns’ — and then between all the with, after a first week took us out for a five- was floating about in of fresh, blowy weather, hour trip in their launch, fingers, as if anxious to little ice-floes. with some showers and visiting island after leave no part unsaluted; a a couple of wet island, and peremptorily Doreen Cornthwaite read out ceremony which he never extracts from this letter at mornings, we enjoyed refused to take any performed but once again the longest period of Birthday Party event on Janu- payment. In the middle ary 6th 2007 (see “Comet” upon a similar occasion… brilliant, serene, warm of this first fortnight we March 2007). More on weather I have ever spent four days at the Nicholson and Norway in the William Cowper 1784 known on a holiday. next issue. Page 4 Comet

“My Charming Cousin” News of a Recent Nicholson Acquisition — by Stella Halkyard On a day in December, rimed with loved works; they offer clues about cut back”. The thing of most frost and muffled in fog, my train his practice as a writer; and (perhaps significance for him at the time pulls out of Carlisle Station, into most touchingly) they place us in the however, was the fact that he’d the pitch of early evening, heading privileged position of encountering reached the age of sixty. He for Manchester. Alert, I sit bolt the personality of the poet through records that he felt “quite ancient upright, jealously guarding a triumphs, disappointments, grief, for a few hours, but I’m really full suitcase stowed with a precious contentment, friendship, curiosity, of thanks and amazement that I cargo. Arriving in Manchester I hope, love and affection. Saved for should ever have reached that leap into a taxi and in minutes am the North West Region and the age at all”. True pathos seeps safe within the precincts of the Nation, this previously “untouched” through these words as we John Rylands Library, carefully collection is currently being witness the influence of his unpacking the contents of the catalogued to ensure it can reach as boyhood battle with tuberculosis case, checking the condition of wide an audience of readers and casting its pale shadow into later each item, and placing them into visitors as possible. Items from the life. Further on in the year we find sturdy, “archive-friendly” boxes in Collection will feature in a display in Nicholson regaling Doreen with the vaults of the Library’s strong the Rylands during December but for tales of experiences with the room. At the end of the task I those already tantalized beyond media as he is the subject of a breathe out slowly and as the endurance a few edited highlights programme on Radio Carlisle and tension flows out of my body my are included here for your the South Bank Show on head fills with golden recollections delectation. Television. He recalls how the of the events of a remarkable day vicar of St George’s Church in spent with Doreen Cornthwaite, 1974 was a noteworthy year in Millom accommodatingly Norman Nicholson’s cousin. I Nicholson history. In January a “shortened his service on Sunday recall the pleasure of our telephone was installed at 14, St morning so that the congregation exploration of her collection of George’s Terrace for the first time could get home in time to hear Nicholsoniana and how we packed and Nicholson was busy at work on the reading”. We are also treated it up carefully in readiness for its his celebrated autobiography, to an inspirational glimpse of journey south to the Rylands to Wednesday Early Closing. He Nicholson’s robust, northern join what has become the largest reported that “64,000 words are humour. Subjected to the collection of Nicholson-related now on paper, out of a required total indignities of a barium enema he primary source material in the of about 80,000, though I’ll proba- describes his experience as world. bly write more like 90,000 and then “weird… rather like giving birth to a baby on the Big Dipper at This exceptional set of papers, so Blackpool”. generously deposited, contains a range of materials including a 1974 was also the year which wonderful sequence of files which also brought a new typewriter into tell the history of Nicholson’s St George’s Terrace. career through newspaper cuttings (some of which are likely to be The illegibility of Nicholson’s unique) in addition to a vast stack handwriting is legendary. In a of letters from Nicholson to his copy letter to John Betjeman from “charming cousin” Doreen, 1977 in his personal papers spanning the 1970s and 1980s. Nicholson was to recall how They shimmer with jewelled detail “years ago in the days of my first of every aspect of Nicholson’s life. negotiations with Fabers, Eliot Read as whole they show said that it would be a happy day Nicholson engaging with his for him when my friends joined friends, family and his community together to subscribe for a type- in Millom and beyond; they writer for me”. So the upgrading speak eloquently of the literary Mary Griffiths of the technology in 1974, projects he is involved in and Gabriele 25, 2007 recorded in his letter to Do- provide accounts of the Pen, ink, wash reen, was surely an oc- emergence of some of his best casion for celebration by all those friends, [cont. next page] Volume 2, Issue 2 Page 5

“My Charming Cousin” - continued An Extract from William family, and publishers in regular has an interest in the life and work of Cowper’s The Task: Book written contact with him. Some Norman Nicholson. You are exhorted Three—The Garden commentators however, including to come and see for yourselves. As Yvonne Nicholson, have cast one who has had the great privilege of aspersions on Nicholson’s prowess reading a large quantity of Nicholson’s Well—one at least is as a typist as well as castigating the letters, the most striking quality of safe. One shelter’d hare infamous handwriting. At last we those he wrote to cousin is that they Has never heard the have some evidence which might are saturated with affection and account for Nicholson’s tendencies display the poet’s deep capacity for sanguinary yell to eccentricity in typing. The new friendship. I leave you with two short Of cruel man, exulting machine was a Gabriele which was examples: in her woes. acquired at a “knockdown” price of It was a great disappointment not Innocent partner of my £50 because it was a “cancelled to see you last Friday. All the way export order”. peaceful home, up, driving through darkening fog, In his letter to Doreen, Nicholson I had consoled myself with the Whom ten long years’ cheerfully explains how it came with thought that I’d be able to show experience of my care “full instructions in German, Italian, off my charming cousin… (1974) Has made at last familiar; Spanish and Swedish, of which I thought you might use a little she has lost luckily, I can read the Italian. But it note to welcome you on your has a foreign keyboard, which is Much of her vigilant return to England. There is taking some getting used to. For instinctive dread, nothing in the least importance to one thing, there is no exclamation say, so, if you still have unpacking Not needful here, mark, and, for an apostrophe I have and the like to deal with, just put beneath a roof like mine. to use the French acute… I’ve got a this letter aside until you are at marvellous selection of foreign Yes—thou mayest eat leisure… (1984) consonants”! thy bread, and lick the

The stories compressed into the Stella Halkyard hand layers of the rich stratigraphy of this Modern Literary Archivist That feeds thee; thou collection are myriad, and John Rylands Library March 2007 mayest frolic on the potentially endless, to anyone who floor At evening, and at night Nicholson, Wordsworth and the retire secure David Cooper’s talk at the AGM To thy straw couch, and The second AGM of the Society, held on March 30th, was well attended. After the slumber unalarm’d; year's events had been summarised and amendments to the Constitution ratified, For I have gain’d thy David Cooper gave a most interesting and informative talk. His subject, 'Nicholson, Wordsworth and the Lake District' posed the 'problem of precedent' and the dual confidence, have pledged challenge to Nicholson of Wordsworth, 'this great big Old Man on (his) back' who had All that is human in me 'documented every rock, stone and tree', and of the Wordsworthian view of the Lake District. to protect

Nicholson acknowledges Wordsworth to be 'one of the supreme poets in the English Thine unsuspecting language' - he needed to draw upon him, then move beyond him. In doing so, Cooper gratitude and love. maintains, Nicholson 'oscillates between reverence and subversion', a view he bases If I survive thee, I will first on Nicholson's private notebook, analysing its many references to Wordsworth to illustrate this ambivalence, then on two key poems, 'To the River Duddon' and 'On dig thy grave; the Dismantling of Millom Ironworks'. And, when I place thee

Nicholson also challenges the Wordsworthian 'wheel and central hub' model of the in it, sighing say, Lake District: to ignore the coastal and industrial sites, he argues, is to dismiss elements which are as much a product of 'the rock, the shape of the land and its “I knew at least one hare history' as 'Derwentwater, Blea Tarn and the Wasdale Screes'. that had a friend.”

David said that while we may criticise Nicholson's failure to break completely away from Wordsworth, we should also celebrate his willingness to wrestle with these William Cowper 1785 issues: the tension inherent in the 'problem of precedent' ensures that Nicholson's poems of place will endure. Peggy Troll Page 6 Comet

Closure Nicholson’s Influence on a Contemporary Cumbrian Poet and Writer

no Mossbay Editor’s note: I was lucky critique and support from fellow reading of Nicholson’s enough to hear Phil Houghton poets at the Cumbria Writers’ prose, and later his rails read the poem “Closure” at the workshops. poetry, led me to consider the subjects rolling after Words by the Water Festival in A s e i s m i c s h i f t raised by Nicholson in today March this year and was somewhere in the Greater Lakeland in intrigued by his introduction to bedrock of Cumbria drew - they’re tek’n family the poem in which he made a much greater depth than apart - my chosen centre of link between his work and that Lakeland out from previously . die of Norman Nicholson. Phil Keswick towards the was cast years back Houghton has been writing industry of a Greater Driving to work late one poetry for just over eight years, Lakeland which hinged August day in 2006, I too short a time but more regularly since moving the fells on iron to the heard BBC Radio to Cumbria seven years ago to a rail edge of the sea. The Cumbria’s live broadcast live near the Ullswater Fells. the lines like veins stability of thirty of the last rail being His work draws much of its thousand feet of solid made at the Mossbay run deep influence from the Cumbrian Cumberland carried the plant in West Cumbria landscape, its natural and at seven fifty five shock waves of this and I was moved to write industrial history. Phil is a twenty fifth of August change of perspective the poem Closure to member of the Cumbrian Poets r i g h t f r o m t h e i r mark this event. It was the last bloom group in Keswick, under the epicentre: one Norman later that I realized that, enters tutelary spirit of Chris Pilling, whilst this is not prize-winning poet and Nicholson of Millom. - blood of the track - Norman’s poem, it was translator. In 2005 Phil pressured, forced I had formed my view of certainly an event which received mentoring from the poet he would have noted had to make its last Marita Over, after being selected the Lakes from childhood visits to Keswick, the he still been with us. reluctant show by competition for this privilege. He gave his first public reading picturesque hiding the to breathe its last wad and sweat of its own Greater Lakeland starts in Wordsworth House, with Norman claiming relenting breath Cockermouth on the eve of the mining days behind the happy crowds of holiday Millom as the centre of an I 2 3 5 t h a n n i v e r s a r y o f his Greater Lakeland and Wordsworth’s birthday— on makers, but it was on a me becoming a resident of this he does in the the 7th April 2005. Phil’s shadow of Millom’s iron- as the we work has already been published Cumbria and reading Nicholson’s Greater works closure. Thirty- disbands in several places, including eight years on Mossbay Christmas—New Writing Lakeland, that the true and creeping character of this area changed forever, whilst from Cumbria, 2005 and on the fells looked on with a from the gate the Flora of the Fells 2006 was opened up to me. steadying permanence. a workforce project website. He reads his Having found my own poetry to be heavily is extruded poetry regularly at several Cumbrian venues and stresses influenced by the land- PMH — Cumbria one the importance to him of regular scape and its natural last h is to r y , e xpa n d e d 6th May 2007 time Nicholson Festival Schools’ Poetry Competition Phil Houghton Due to a lack of funding the 20th as promised. will be three age-groups in 25th August 2006 committee have had to the competition: 7-11, 11- A major aspect of this day curtail some of the plans for 14 and 14-18; and great will be the Award Ceremony Bloom – raw steel, ready a mini-festival in October to prizes will be awarded, for winners of the first celebrate Nicholson’s life including a valuable bonus for processing / rolling Norman Nicholson Festival and work during the 20th prize of a Masterclass with Schools’ Poetry anniversary of his death. Neil Curry for all winners Competition, this year to be Nevertheless we are deter- and runners-up in the 11- aimed exclusively at Millom mined to go ahead and hold 18 category. [story continues and District Schools. There a Festival Day on October on p.7] Volume 2, Issue 2 Page 7

FORTHCOMING EVENTS The Tame Hare Touring exhibition of the writing Norman Nicholson Festival and photos produced by Millom Day: October 20th, 2007— She came to him in dreams - her ears writers and artists for the Guide Hall, Millom Norman Nicholson Project Diddering like antennae, and her eyes  Matt Simpson, poet, Several Cumbrian libraries and writer and critic Wide as dark flowers where the dew other venues have agreed to Holds and dissolves a purple hoard of host the exhibition of work  David Scott, poet shadow. influenced by Nicholson’s  S c h o o l s ’ P o e t r y themes. There will also be an Competition Winners […] installation version of the and presentation exhibition touring the North West throughout 2007 and bringing  Poetry Masterclass with word about Millom and Norman Neil Curry for winners Oh, but never dared he touch — Nicholson to a wider audience. of the 14—18 category Her fur was still electric to the fingers. i n t h e P o e t r y Heritage Weekend — Millom Competition […] 6th—9th September 2007 (This will happen at a date Several events are planned and mutually convenient to the THE TEXT OF THIS POEM HAS BEEN will be advertised in the local school and the poet) REDACTED FOR COPYRIGHT REASONS. press and via English Heritage. Please do support us and come The NN Society will have an to this event. We have worked Norman Nicholson, Collected Poems, p. 140 exhibition about Norman hard to make it happen. Bring a Nicholson in St. George’s friend! Or several… The poem was also collected in Church. ’s and Ted Hughes’s If any members have memorabilia Dec. 8th 2007 (to be confirmed): anthology The Rattle Bag and relating to Nicholson’s life and work and would be willing to lend these to Members’ trip to the Norman mentioned in Blake Morrison’s review the society, please contact Peggy Nicholson Archive at the John of that book: https://www.the- Troll: 18, Lowther Road, Millom Rylands Library, Manchester tls.co.uk/articles/public/seamus- LA18 4LN Further information will follow. heaney-ted-hughes-beyond-the- Schools’ Poetry Competition (continued) pleasure-principle-2/. All schools entering the competition the fact that such an internationally will receive the gift of Norman reputed writer lived in Millom all his Nicholson’s Selected Poems as a life. memento, and as further The Norman Nicholson Society also encouragement to read and be wishes to play a role in developing inspired by Nicholson’s work. We and promoting a love for local hope that the award ceremony will places and people, in the tradition of be a memorable and meaningful Norman Nicholson, helping people event for the children, families and to realize that the local and particu- teachers involved, and hope too that we will be able to continue with lar is a vital part of the universal. and expand on this competition in We are fortunate in having received future years. generous donations from members and a particularly substantial grant We are placing such a strong from the local publishing company emphasis on children’s writing CGP, all of which have made it because we want it to be apparent possible to go ahead with the that the society wishes not only to competition. Further donations to be a focus for research and literary help make future events successful criticism but also to promote and memorable are encouraged. creative responses to Nicholson’s Please contact our membership work. Moreover, we want local secretary, Wendy Bracegirdle, if you 1502 children to be aware of Nicholson’s Albrecht Durer “A Young Hare” life and work and to feel proud of would like to make such a donation. COWPER’S TAME HARE by David Scott

One of the underlying motifs that ran through Nicholson’s adult life was the life and work of William Cowper (1731- 1804). Though separated by the 19th century, both men were poets who had a love of nature, both cast a whimsical eye on the absurdities of life, both were religious believers, and both knew the highs and lows of fragile mental and physical constitutions. In Nicholson’s introduction to ‘A Choice of Cowper’s Verse’ (Faber, 1975), he concludes like this, “In Cowper’s letters, we see his imagination and humour playing like firelight over everyday affairs (the escapes of a tame hare, the warping of a table leg, the ordering of a hat, an unexplained knock on the door) till they form a personal landscape which is neither insignificant or dull… Cowper says things as they are, but in the sad, yellow brightness of a sun that was always on the point of setting.” Nicholson wrote a biography of Cowper in 1951, which was published by John Lehmann.

That passing reference to “the escape of a tame hare” refers to the hare that lived with Cowper and Mrs Unwin in Olney. It was a domestic hare called Old Tiny (no doubt because it was quite large). When Old Tiny died, Cowper wrote an elegy for the hare called ‘On a Hare”. Cowper describes its indoor nature:

Here lies, whom hound did ne’er pursue, Nor swifter greyhound follow Whose foot ne’er tainted morning dew Nor ear heard huntsman’s halloo.

Old Tiny was fed on wheaten bread, milk, oats and straw, thistles, lettuces, and “with sand to scour his maw”. At the age of 8 years 5 months Old Tiny died and was buried underneath a walnut tree. Cowper found the hare a solace in his more melancholic periods, “for he would oft beguile / My heart of thoughts that made it ache / And force me to a smile.”

Nicholson’s poem ‘The Tame Hare’ (published first in Rock Face, Faber, 1948) takes up the theme from Cowper’s poem of the comfort that this pet hare could bring, and sets that in the context of Cowper’s passion for the quiet and hidden beauties of the countryside, which were Nicholson’s passions as well.

The Tame Hare

She came to him in dreams – her ears Diddering like antennae...

...Yet of all the beasts blazoned in gilt and blood In the black-bound missal of his mind, Pentecostal dove and Paschal lamb, Eagle, lion, serpent, she alone Lived also in the noon of ducks and sparrows; And the cleft-mouth kiss that plugged the night with fever Was sweetened by a lunch of docks and lettuce.

The ‘she’ of the opening line is Old Tiny, the hare, and indeed the word Tiny doubles as an adjective in line 6: “The world opened / Tiny and bright as a celandine after rain.” Nicholson’s signature on this poem of the hare lies in his choice of language. I had to look up “diddering”, incredulous that it was a real word, but there it is in the OED “diddering: same as to dither, meaning to tremble, quake, shake, shiver” and it is also a Westmorland dialect word, as in “I quite doddered for fear.” (1821).

As the poem progresses we see how the hare colours the nightmare world that Cowper experienced in his dreams. The second section of Nicholson’s poem gathers religious and heraldic images together. The terror of the accusing texts of the Bible come from the time when Cowper’s neighbour and minister, John Newton, was preaching in the Parish Church. The serpent of Genesis, the shields and breastplates, and the lion and eagle, all have apocalyptic significance. The nights of terror, though, are tempered by the noon of ducks and sparrows. “Plugged” is another Nicholson word. I can hear him saying it. The hare-lip and “cleft- mouth” of Old Tiny, was plugged or filled with the plant ‘fever’, but ‘fever’ is used as a metaphor again for the distinction between the terrors of the night (Cowper’s years of madness), and the days of sweetness and respite of his later years which were mirrored in Old Tiny’s sweet “lunch of docks and lettuce.”

This is a complex poem, which needs quite a lot of background information to help it resonate, and work, but once the homework is done, it seems one of the profoundest of Nicholson’s early poems. In it we can see the way Nicholson’s mind worked on the construction of poems, and some of the deepest influences that stayed with him throughout his writing life. David Scott May 2007

Comet: editor, Antoinette Fawcett— [email protected] (3, Burlington St., Ulverston, Cumbria LA12 7JA)