Author:
John Gawsworth [pseudonym of Terence Ian Fitton Armstrong (1912-1970)], English poet, author and ‘King of Redonda’ [New English Weekly, founded in 1932 by A. R. Orage]
Publication details:
No date [1940s]. Stamped ‘FOR & ON BEHALF OF / THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY. / 15 REGENT’S PARK TERRACE / GULiver 3875’.
On one side of a 12mo a piece of grey-green paper; creased, worn and torn at the bottom. A fifteen-line poem in five three-line stanzas, titled ‘REST’. At end: ‘JOHN GAWSWORTH’. Proof directions in pencil to convert a full-stop at the end of the fourth stanza to a comma. While the poet's attempt at direct simplicity verges on triteness, one should recall that he served manfully in the RAF: ‘Beneath the oaks the soldiers lie / Staring at the open sky / Drowsily, lazily. / Like England is this plot of green / But in the mountains all unseen / The guns’ complaint affects the scene.
