Autograph Drafts: 'Nonsence Poems'

  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 58 Add MS 88931/2/6/1
  • Alternative Id.
      (ark) ark:/81055/vdc_100000001202.0x000351
  • Dates of Creation
      [1940s-1950s]
  • Language of Material
      English
  • Physical Description
      1 oversize file

Scope and Content

Contains original folder inscribed with Peake's Wallington address [where he lived from 1953 to 1960] but poems appear to have been written earlier. Inside folder is inscribed with the line 'I sometimes think of old tomes and [illegible: not 'weeds']' ['I sometimes think of old tombs and weeds' is the first line of Peake's poem A Reverie of Bone, written in 1942]. Poems contain revisions. Some doodles appear in margins.

Poems include:

  • 'Deliria';
  • 'How good it is to be alone...' (two versions);
  • 'Mine was the one...';
  • 'Come husband! Come, and ply the trade...';
  • 'Squat Ursula';
  • 'Little Spider';
  • 'Simple, seldom and sad';
  • '"Come sit beside me dear," he said...';
  • 'Linger now, with me my beauty...';
  • long version of 'You before me...';
  • '"It worries me to know" my dear...';
  • 'I layed by night, my yellow clock...';
  • 'Speaking I said as sock to sock...';
  • 'Crown me with hairpins intertwined';
  • 'The Ballad of Sweet Pighead', 10 March 1947.

Access Information

Unrestricted

Not Public Record(s)

Physical Characteristics and/or Technical Requirements

Conserved by the Bodleian Library prior to acquisition by the British Library (paper repairs, leaves dry-mounted onto acid-free paper, bound and housed in custom-made hard case)