Poets' Corner

Number eleven : 21^st July 2013

William Plomer

A family portrait not too stale to record
Of a pleasant old buffer , nephew to a lord ,
Who believed that the bank was mightier than the sword ,
And that an umbrella might pacify barbarians abroad :
Just like an old liberal
Between the wars.

With a kindly old wife who subscribed for the oppressed ,
With an O.B.E. , and hair-do like a last-year's bird's nest ,
Even more tolerant than anyone would have guessed ,
Who hoped that in the long run all was for the best :
Just like an old lady
Between the wars.

With one child , a son , whose political short sight
Believed we could disarm but at the same time fight ,
And that only the Left Wing could ever be right ,
And that Moscow , of all places , was the sole source of light :
Just like a young smarty
Between the wars.

With a precious mistress who thought she could paint
But could neither show respect nor exercise restraint ,
Was a perfect goose-cap , and thought good manners quaint ,
With affectation enough to try the patience of a saint :
Just like a young cutie
Between the wars.

With a succession of parties for sponges and bores ,
With a traffic-jam outside (for they turned up in scores) ,
With first-rate sherry flowing into second-rate whores ,
And third-rate conversation without one single pause :
Just like a young couple
Between the wars.

William Plomer (1903-1973) was a South African author who came to England in 1929 and entered the London literary circles of the 1930s. His poem Father and Son 1939 , excerpted above , presents a portrait of the social milieu recognisable from the earlier novels of Evelyn Waugh , full of upper-class diehards from a previous generation and their offspring poseurs. Across the Atlantic , the inter-war years saw the rise and fall of the great American novelist , F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was a time , much like our own , of headlong disregard of the associations between economic mayhem and political extremism. A time of wishful thinking , when the haves indulged a wanton urge to dream and dance the stark facts away while the have-nots bore their usual burden. Fitzgerald was a son of Minnesota who died in December 1940. In May 1941 , the future Bob Dylan was born (as Robert Zimmerman) in Minnesota. Here was a man destined to chronicle his own version of mixed-up confusion for the next generation.

Archive

Poets' Corner #1 – Poetic Pessimism, 13^th September 2012
Poets' Corner #2 – The Workman's Friend, 10^th October 2012
Poets' Corner #3 – On The Trail of Two Dylans, 12^th November 2012
Poets' Corner #4 – Omar Khayyam, 14^th December 2012
Poets' Corner #5 – William Blake, 25^th January 2013
Poets' Corner #6 – A Minor Poet, 19^th February 2013
Poets' Corner #7 – Thomas Hardy, 20^th March 2013
Poets' Corner #8 – Shakespeare's Sonnets, 21^st April 2013
Poets' Corner #9 – Edward Thomas, 20^th May 2013
Poets' Corner #10 – Harry Smith's Anthology, 19^th June 2013
Poets' Corner #11 – William Plomer, 21^st July 2013
Poets' Corner #12 – Ghosts , 20^th August 2013
Poets' Corner #13 – William Dunbar, 20^th September 2013
Poets' Corner #14 – Bathtub Thoughts, 20^th October 2013
Poets' Corner #15 – Bagpipe Music, 20^th November 2013
Poets' Corner #16 – Sylvia & Emily, 20^th December 2013
Poets' Corner #17 – The Fall Of Icarus, 16^th January 2014
Poets' Corner #18 – Those Gone Before, 20^th February 2014
Poets' Corner #19 – Rudyard Kipling, 20^th March 2014
Poets' Corner #20 – Martin Bell, 20^th April 2014
Poets' Corner #21 – Another Modest Proposal, 20^th May 2014
Poets' Corner #22 – Thomas Gray and The Eighteenth Century, 20^th June 2014
Poets' Corner #23 – Edgar Allan Poe, 18^th July 2014
Poets' Corner #24 – Tread Softly, 19^th August 2014
Poets' Corner #25 – Mad To Be Saved, 24^th December 2015
Poets' Corner #26 – Wants, 20^th January 2016
Poets' Corner #27 – Samuel Johnson, 15^th February 2016
Poets' Corner #28 – T.S.Eliot, 10^th March 2016
Poets' Corner #29 – Alfred Lord Tennyson, 18^th April 2016
Poets' Corner #30 – Leonard Cohen, 12^th November 2016