Charles Hamilton Sorley
The Tempest
Written c. age 10.
Two Songs from Ibsen’s Dramatic Poems
Jean Moorcroft Wilson: “First published in Marlborough and Other Poems … entitled ‘Two Songs from Ibsen’s Dramatic Poems’ in Sorley’s manuscript. They are not translations from Ibsen, but Sorley’s own impressions of the dramatist’s characters.”
Whom Therefore We Ignorantly Worship
Moorcroft Wilson’s notes detail backstory of this having been written after Sorley’s train from Officer Training Camp arrived at Paddington just as the train for term starting at Marlborough was about to depart. Sorley comments “Not much trace of the origin left; but I think it should get a prize for being the first poem …
German Rain
Undated, but reckoned (by Jean Moorcroft Wilson) to have been definitely written at Jena in the summer of 1914, predating the war (but maybe not its foreboding?)
Topics for written tasks: ‘The beauty that is better not expressed’
Final verse of the poem: But now it’s different; and I have no rest [tab]Because my hand must search, dissect and spell The beauty that is better not expressed, [tab]The thing that all can feel, but none can tell.