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Correspondence from Gerald Yorke to Michael Houghton
30 May 54
Dear Michael,
Re 777 and the special poems. Please cancel number 11 'O.K.' and substitute 11
Elegy (Written in a country farmyard, May 1, 1944)
Here rests beneath this hospitable spot A youth to flats and flatties not unknown. The Plymouth Brethren gave it to him hot; Trinity, Cambridge, claimed him for her own.
At chess a minor master, Hoylake set His handicap at -2. Love drove him crazy; Three thousand women used to call him "pet", In other gardens daffodil or daisy?
He climbed a lot of mountains in his time. He stalked the tiger, bear and elephant. He wrote a stack of poems, some sublime Some not. Plays, essays, pictures, tales—my aunt!
He had the gift of laughing at himself. Most affably he talked and walked with God. And now the silly bastard's on the shelf, We've buried him beneath another sod.
Please note that Karl [Karl Germer] would like for his special copy Oath No. 9 A Conjuration of the Elements.
Yours
Gerald Yorke
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