Record Number: 32887

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'I hope you are well, and are finding some solace in your duties. You must find it hard to console aliens in England. They probably love England, and now they are aliens indeed. There was a letter in the Northcliffe Times not long ago from a lady who would make Bach an alien, a difficult job … You spoke of the Jewish persecution by the Russians. The English papers are allowed to speak of it now; at least there was a strong condemnation in a book-review in the Daily News … The Times published a special supplement of War-Poems on Monday. Did you see it? I think Hardy’s poem [“Song of the Soldiers”) is most likely to survive. It stirs me much more than it first did. On route marches now to occupy my mind, I am learning Wordsworth’s Sonnetts and the first lines of Paradise Lost, for which I can find no praise. It is too colossal. Too Bach-like.’

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 4 Aug 1915 and 12 Aug 1915

Country:

England

Time

daytime

Place:

city: Chelmsford
county: Essex

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Ivor Bertie Gurney

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

28 Aug 1890

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Private, Gloucestershire Regiment

Religion:

Christian (Anglican)

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

John Milton

Title:

Paradise Lost

Genre:

Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

owned

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Source Information:

Record ID:

32887

Source:

Print

Author:

Ivor Gurney

Editor:

R. K. R. Thornton,

Title:

Ivor Gurney: Collected Letters

Place of Publication:

Manchester

Date of Publication:

1991

Vol:

n/a

Page:

31

Additional Comments:

Letter to Ethel Voynich [Irish novelist and musician] 12 August 1915, Chelmsford, Essex

Citation:

Ivor Gurney, R. K. R. Thornton, (ed.), Ivor Gurney: Collected Letters, (Manchester, 1991), p. 31, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=32887, accessed: 21 December 2024

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Additional Comments:

There are no textual clues about which edition Gurney was (re)-reading in order to learn this by heart.