Autograph Letter Signed ('Allen Brockington') from Cecil Sharp's collaborator the Rev. Alfred Allen Brockington to a Roman Catholic priest at St Andrew's, inclosing a holograph of a 'carol for Easter'.

Author: 
Rev. Alfred Allen Brockington (1872-1938) of West Kirby, Cheshire, poet and collaborator with Cecil Sharp in the collection of folk-songs
Publication details: 
On letterhead of The Haven, West Kirby, Cheshire. 'St Paul [29 June] 1938'.
£120.00
SKU: 13296

4pp., 12mo. In very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The letter is addressed to 'My dear Father'. He begins by thanking him for his letter: 'I can picture the long-nailed Neb. sitting down to answer your request for an autograph. Strange, that you should have been hearing of Vaughan Williams just at that time!' He reports that he has been 'doing many poems for The British Weekly. The Editor saw something of mine & asked me to send whatever I liked. And his nonconformist readers do not seem to jib. In fact one of them sent me some music for a Christmas thing.' He is pleased the recipient liked his carol, and wonders what he will think of 'the enclosed carol for Easter'. He explains that his son, 'who used to come to see me in the Leicester hospital, went out with his wife to South Africa last April. He has a good appointment as an engineer in Johannesburg.' The rest of the letter contains chitchat about growing a beard, 'a Hazel flowering' and 'the thrushes [...] getting into form'. He continues: 'I suppose you have a priest with you now at St Andrew's. A friend of mine near here has been nearly two years without one. But he does not work as you work.' He concludes by stating that he has 'a wonderful liking for discussion of doctrine'. The poem, signed 'Allen Brockington', covers both sides of the second letterhead. It is titled 'A Song of the Resurrection' and consists of 31 lines in three stanzas, the first stanza reading: 'Sing this over, | Constant lover, | Tell it ever, | Tideless river, | "Christ is risen, Christ is risen."' Brockington was a Georgian poet, the author of numerous volumes of verse. According to his entry in 'Who Was Who', he 'wrote school stories for Boy’s Own Paper, Young England, etc.; contributed to Expository Times, Cornhill, Nation and Athenæum, Nation (NY), London Mercury, Manchester Guardian, Poetry Review, etc'.