Robert Graves

by

Joyce Hemsley

Series of famous British Names:

ROBERT GRAVES (Robert Ranke Graves)
Great Poet and great Novelist.
Born in Wimbledon, England 1895
Died Majorca 1985...Educated at
Charterhouse School, and at a later
date, St.John's, Oxford. He bacame
Professor of Poetry at Oxford for
a term of five years from 1961.

At nineteen, Robert Graves joined the
Royal Welch Fusiliers, but after being
very badly injured in The Battle of The
Somme, he remained in England until the
end of the First World War, and wrote
a book, "Goodbye to All That". He
married three times - and was father to
eight children. His first wife was
Nancy Nicholson, second was Laura Riding;
third and last was Beryl Hodge. Robert
Graves met Siegfried Sassoon, also a
famous British Poet; their friendship
is referred to in the Collected Poems,
"Fairies and Fusiliers".

At the onset of the Second World War,
Graves and his second wife, Laura,
took a trip to Pennsyslvania; this is
where the marriage came to an end.
A novel by Miranda Seymour,
The Summer of '39, refers to this
unhappy time in the life of Graves
and Laura.

His works were "vast" in number -
Over the Brazier, a volume of poetry.
I Claudius and Claudius the God,
They hanged my saintly Billy,
King Jesus and The White Goddess.

A favourite quote -
"There's no money in poetry but
there's no poetry in money either".

Graves favoured short poetry -
I quote: "She Tells of Her Love".

She tells of her love while half asleep
In the dark hours.
With half words whispered low
As earth stirs in her winter sleep
And puts out grass and flowers.
Despite the snow,
Despite the falling snow.
(by Robert Graves).

Robert and Beryl lived out their last
days in Majorca. There they were
buried in a small churchyard.
May they rest in peace.

NEXT?
Why don't you look at FACE OFF
by: Paul Curtis
from: Woking, England, UK

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