In Marmalade Matters I mentioned Bertie Wooster’s Scripture Knowledge prize, won at his prep. school. Bertie went on to Eton and, while winning no prizes (he surely would have said if he had), did not leave empty-handed.
Unless you are sacked, as James Bond was, every Leaver is presented with Poems by Thomas Gray, chosen because Gray had been to Eton. The gift (although it’s cost is doubtless absorbed in the fees) is bestowed by the Head Master, my first and only encounter with him whilst I was at Eton. It is inscribed to me with my Christian names written in Latin. No attempt has been made to render Bellew in Latin. The HM has signed, in English, too.
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard is Gray’s best known poem; like the National Anthem we know how it starts but are not so familiar with subsequent verses.
THE Curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea,
The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
Last year David Cameron chose it as his favourite poem. I wonder if he remembers two more stanzas?
Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,
Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile
The short and simple annals of the poor.
The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave,
Awaits alike the inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
I like to think he is aware of these lines. He is aware of his own political mortality. You may be interested in the poems chosen by other party leaders, revealed in an article by Andrew Motion published in The Sunday Times in April 2015. You can read the whole article here or the part about poetry below.
Sir Andrew Motion: Which poem or piece of music most reminds you of the English countryside and why?
Natalie Bennett: “Aemelia Lanyer’s Ode to Cooke-ham, particularly
‘The trees with leaves, with fruits, with flowers clad,
Emraced each other, seeming to be glad,
Turning themselves to beauteous Canopies’
Which makes me think of an overgrown old orchard, perhaps neglected, but containing ancient varieties of fruits, rich in insect life. The poet’s biography, as the first Englishwoman to have poetry published, is also part of the attraction”.
David Cameron: “Gray’s Elegy – it was my leaving present from school and it is a magical poem”.
Nick Clegg: “One of my all-time favourite poems is Eternity by William Blake. The need to enjoy the ‘here and now’ is something the English countryside reminds you of every time you get a chance to immerse yourself within its natural beauty and wonder”.
‘He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity’s sun rise’.
Nigel Farage: “The Lark Ascending, the poem by George Meredith and the piece of the same name by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Vaughan Williams was arrested in Margate, some of which is in South Thanet where I’m standing, in 1914 for jotting notes for the piece while watching fleet exercises, because a small boy who had evidently ingested ‘The Riddle of the Sands’ thought he was writing in a secret code”.
Ed Miliband: “It has to be the hymn, Jerusalem. Apart from being a great tune, it is sung at the end of our annual party conference. It carries the idea of a building a better country and making Britain a better place for all of us which really chimes with Labour’s values”.