John Drinkwater

[Maria Magenta]

I'm putting this here because of his connection with the Rep.

The latest journal of the Friends of the Dymock Poets has a very long article by Catherine Hindson about Drinkwater's connection with the Cadbury factory. It's too long to summarise, but I'll quote one sentence: "he had a long-standing professional relationship with the Birmingham-based cocoa and chocolate producer that spanned two decades, working with their employees to make and perform theatre."

When he died in 1937, there was a long obituary in the Cadbury's staff publication.

 

[Godber]

A poem he wrote has stayed with me ever since I read it (I think it was in a text book called Touchstones) at school some 45 years ago. Being something of a night owl it struck a chord in me and I think it’s a wonderful vignette of nocturnal tranquility.

MOONLIT APPLES.

At the top of the house the apples are laid in rows,
And the skylight lets the moonlight in, and those
Apples are deep-sea apples of green. There goes
A cloud on the moon in the autumn night.

A mouse in the wainscot scratches, and scratches, and then
There is no sound at the top of the house of men
Or mice; and the cloud is blown, and the moon again
Dapples the apples with deep-sea light.

They are lying in rows there, under the gloomy beams;
On the sagging floor; they gather the silver streams
Out of the moon, those moonlit apples of dreams,
And quiet is the steep stair under.

In the corridors under there is nothing but sleep.
And stiller than ever on orchard boughs they keep
Tryst with the moon, and deep is the silence, deep
On moon-washed apples of wonder.


John Drinkwater.

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