My first impression of Eleanor Farjeon, whom I hope to write about some time, \u2013 and it\u2019s certainly an impression she cultivated in later life \u2013 was of a cosy dumpling of a woman who wrote poems about cats. But we saw another side of her in Nick Dear\u2019s play about Edward Thomas, performed at the Almeida a couple of years ago, \u2018The Dark Earth and the Light Sky,\u2019 which showed her intense relationship with the poet. Eleanor was then a young woman from a literary family, who moved in a busy circle of musicians, Fabians, writers and psychologists. It was in 1912, when Thomas was receiving treatment for his depression from a young doctor, Godwin Baynes who specialised in nervous diseases, that Eleanor first met him, and very soon fell in love with him. The affair was platonic \u2013 Eleanor probably wouldn\u2019t have wanted it any other way. Though Thomas became very close to Eleanor and emotionally dependent on her, he didn\u2019t reciprocate her love. They exchanged numerous letters \u2013 his to her survive, hers to him don\u2019t – spent much time together, went for long walks \u2013 Eleanor wasn\u2019t a strider by nature but she learned to keep up to Thomas\u2019s long loping steps. They talked about poetry \u2013 Eleanor was one of the people who suggested to a diffident Thomas that he might try writing it \u2013 Robert Frost was another, and fortunately for us, Thomas took the hint.
\n Thomas\u2019s long suffering wife, Helen, must have been unsure at first about Eleanor\u2019s place in her husband\u2019s life, but when they met, they became good friends and remained so. Helen came to see her as an ally rather than a rival.
\n Eleanor had been writing poetry all her life \u2013 it came naturally to her; too naturally sometimes. D.H.Lawrence said it might be a good thing if she never saw another Elizabethan sonnet in her life again, since she could fall so easily into pastiche. But when she was moved by real emotions, her poetry was beautiful and moving. She wrote this sonnet when Thomas had just been called up, and it must capture the feelings of many women who wonder if they are seeing their loved ones for the very last time.<\/p>\n
Now That You Too\u2026<\/p>\n
Now that you too must shortly go the way
\n Which in these bloodshot years uncounted men
\n Have gone in vanishing armies day by day,
\n And in their numbers will not come again:
\n I must not strain the moments of our meeting
\n Striving each look, each accent, not to miss,
\n Or question of our parting and our greeting \u2013
\n Is this the last of all? is this- or this?
\n Last sight of all it may be with these eyes,
\n Last touch, last hearing, since eyes, hands, and ears,
\n Even serving love, are our mortalities,
\n And cling to what they own in mortal fears:-
\n But oh, let end what will, I hold you fast
\n By immortal love, which has no first or last<\/p>\n
(copyright Eleanor Farjeon)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My first impression of Eleanor Farjeon, whom I hope to write about some time, \u2013 and it\u2019s certainly an impression she cultivated in later life \u2013 was of a cosy dumpling of a woman who wrote poems about cats. But we saw another side of her in Nick Dear\u2019s play about Edward Thomas, performed at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77,"href":"http:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions\/77"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}