Enclosure – "Assumption Day": draft of poem by RG

Assumption Day
What was wrong with the day, doubtless,
Was less the unseasonable gusty weather,[RG]
Than the bells ringing on a Monday morning
For a church-[RG]feast that interested[RG] ×××× [crossed out] ×××× [indecipherable] nobody ×××× [indecipherable] could welcome –[RG]
Not even the bell-ringers.
The pond had shrunk: its yellow lilies
Poked rubbery necks out of the water.
I paused and sat down crossly on a tussock,
My back turned on the idle water-beetles
That would not skim, but floated.
A wasp, a humble-bee, a blue-fly
Uncoöperatively at work together
Were sucking honey from the crowded blossom
Of a pale flower whose name someone once told me –
Someone to be mistrusted.
But, not far off, our little cow-herd
Made mud-cakes, with one eye on the cattle,
And marked each separate cake with his initials.
I was half-tempted by the child's example
To rescue my spoilt morning.

Hands Referenced

    • Annotation: ink correction
    • Character: regular
    • Ink: black

People Mentioned

  • Robert

    Graves, Robert
    [1st person]. (1895-1985). Poet, novelist, essayist, critic, and author of his diary. eds.

Organizations Mentioned

  • Editors

    Editors of the Graves Diary Project.

Bibliography

    • Title: Assumption Day [poem: draft enclosed; see diary Aug. 15th and 18th, 1938 eds.]
    • Title: Robert Graves: Complete Poems Vol. III
    • Author: Graves, Robert
    • Editor: Beryl Graves and Dunstan Ward
    • PubPlace: Manchester
    • Publisher: Carcanet Press
    • BiblScope: pp.346, 528 (note)
    • Date: 1995-1999