W. H. Davies, the Tramp Poet

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 40, 15 April 1932, Page 9

W. H. Davies, the Tramp Poet

"THE following is the outline of the second talk by the Rey. W. Jellie, B.A., IIl. to be broadeast from 1YA on Wednesday, April 20 :- His early life, related in "Autobiography of a Super-Tramp," was @ strange apprenticeship to the art of poetry. (a) Brought up by a grandfather publican. Leadership in mischief at school led to prison. Reading began with penny novel, but went on to Byron, Shelley and the great poets. (b) Landing in America he met with a professional beggar and joined the tramp fraternity. Years followed of adventures by land and sea, haunted by the feeling that he was born for a different life. His fate decided by reading a newspaper appreciation of Burns and by loss of a leg in boarding a train. (c) The next phase of his life was spent in London in cheap lodginghouses writing. Hawked his poems from door to door. Turned pedlar to earn money for printing a book. No sale. With last shillings posted copies to well-known people. His merit recognised, fame followed. Subjects(a2) Poems of nature, revelations of an innocent heart happy in companionship of innocent wild things. : (b) Money and the want of it. Music. Sleep. Infancy. Sickness. Old Age. Death. (ce) Love poems, inspired by a happy marriage contracted at 50. Characteristics(a) His tramp experiences exclie pity for wretchedness, sin and folly in others. (b) Nearly all are short lyrics, the appreciation of 2 moment’s experience crammed into brief space; "What a crowded world one moment may contain." Simple things expressed in simple language, where intensity of feeling gives intensity of imagery. (e) All springs from his own joy-a deliberate joy, that issues from his experience of life and from renunciation of possessions prized by the world. °