The Poetry Of Radclyffe Hall - Volume 3 - A Sheaf Of Verses: "The world hid its head in the sands of convention, so that by seeing nothing it might avoid Truth."

By Radclyffe Hall

In Germany, Hall met Mabel Batten and fell in love despite the twenty-three year age difference. Batten gave Hall the nickname ‘John’ by which she was henceforward known in every circumstance throughout her life except in her work as an author. In 1915, Hall met and, in 1917 moved in with sculptor Una Troubridge, with whom she would remain for the rest of her life. Hall wrote poetry all throughout her twenties and thirties. She had published Dedicated to Arthur Sullivan as early as 1894, and five further volumes of collected work (including ‘Twixt Earth and Stars in 1906, A Sheaf of Verses in 1908, Poems of the Past and Present in 1910 and Songs of Three Counties and Other Poems in 1913) were released before she stopped writing poetry and published her first novel in 1924. This was The Forge. That same year also saw publication of The Unlit Lamp, the first work for which Hall was known as simply Radclyffe Hall. The Well of Loneliness, the most important novel of Hall’s career, was published in 1928 to immediate sensation and controversy. It is Hall’s most direct artistic expression of her own personal sexual orientation. After the controversy of The Well of Loneliness, Hall would publish only two more novels: The Master of the House in 1932 and The Sixth Beatitude in 1936. She also released a collection of short stories – Miss Ogilvy Finds Herself in 1934. After years spent travelling in Italy and France and a series of long lasting affairs with other women (of which Troubridge was apparently aware), Hall retired with Troubridge to Rye, a small town in East Sussex. Hall, suffering from tuberculosis, underwent surgeries on her eyes and she thereafter had difficulty reading and writing. On October 7, 1943, Radclyffe Hall died from colon cancer at the age of sixty-three. She is buried in Highgate Cemetery in London near the gravesite of Mabel Batten.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Copyright Group
• Release date: Feb 27, 2015
• ISBN: 9781785431609

Radclyffe Hall

Radclyffe Hall (1880-1943) was an English poet and novelist. Born to a wealthy English father and an American mother in Bournemouth, Hampshire, Hall was left a sizeable fortune following her parents’ separation in 1882. Raised in a troubled environment, Hall struggled to gain financial independence from her mother and stepfather. As she took control of her inheritance, Hall began dressing in men’s clothing and identifying herself as a “congenital invert.” In 1907, she began a relationship with amateur singer Mabel Batten, who encouraged Hall to pursue a career in literature. By 1917, she had fallen in love with sculptor Una Troubridge, a cousin of Batten’s. After several poetry collections, Hall’s second novel The Unlit Lamp (1924) was published, becoming a bestseller shortly thereafter. Adam’s Breed (1926), a novel about an Italian waiter who abandons modern life, earned Hall the Prix Femina and the James Tait Black Prize, two of the most prestigious awards in world literature. In 1928, Hall’s sixth novel, The Well of Loneliness, was published to widespread controversy for its depiction of lesbian romance. While an obscenity trial in the United Kingdom led to an order that all copies of the novel be destroyed, a lengthy trial in the United States eventually allowed the book’s publication. Recognized as a pioneering figure in lesbian literature, Hall lived in London with Una Troubridge until her death at the age of sixty-three.

Book preview

The Poetry of Radclyffe Hall - Volume 3

A Sheaf of Verses

She was born Marguerite Radclyffe-Hall in 1880 to wealthy parents who separated while she was still an infant.  Her parents thereafter paid little attention to her. Hall was educated privately, and then at King’s College London. Later she travelled to Europe, settling in Dresden, Germany.  By now she had inherited a vast fortune from her paternal grandfather and was able to live as she pleased.

In Germany, Hall met Mabel Batten and fell in love despite the twenty-three year age difference. Batten gave Hall the nickname ‘John’ by which she was henceforward known in every circumstance throughout her life except in her work as an author.

In 1915, Hall met and, in 1917 moved in with sculptor Una Troubridge, with whom she would remain for the rest of her life.

Hall wrote poetry all throughout her twenties and thirties. She had published Dedicated to Arthur Sullivan as early as 1894, and five further volumes of collected work (including ‘Twixt Earth and Stars in 1906, A Sheaf of Verses in 1908, Poems of the Past and Present in 1910 and Songs of Three Counties and Other Poems in 1913) were released before she stopped writing poetry and published her first novel in 1924. This was The Forge.

That same year also saw publication of The Unlit Lamp, the first work for which Hall was known as simply Radclyffe Hall.

The Well of Loneliness, the most important novel of Hall’s career, was published in 1928 to immediate sensation and controversy. It is Hall’s most direct artistic expression of her own personal sexual orientation.

After the controversy of The Well of Loneliness, Hall would publish only two more novels: The Master of the House in 1932 and The Sixth Beatitude in 1936. She also released a collection of short stories – Miss Ogilvy Finds Herself in 1934.

After years spent travelling in Italy and France and a series of long lasting affairs with other women (of which Troubridge was apparently aware), Hall retired with Troubridge to Rye, a small town in East Sussex. Hall, suffering from tuberculosis, underwent surgeries on her eyes and she thereafter had difficulty reading and writing.

On October 7, 1943, Radclyffe Hall died from colon cancer at the age of sixty-three. She is buried in Highgate Cemetery in London near the gravesite of Mabel Batten.

DEDICATED TO SAD DAYS AND GLAD DAYS

Index of Poems

Kinship 

The Moon's Message 

On a Battle Field 

To 

The All-Mother's Awakening .... 

A Summer Thought 

Moth to the Flame

A. Twilight Fancy 

The Two Angels 

In the Hardt Wald 

The Quest of the White Heather . . . 

One Night 

A Welcome 

White Butterflies 

Thoughts 

The Cloud and the Mountain .... 

An August Night 

Spring Hopes 

My Choice 

In Couples 

House Hunting 

Re-incarnation 

Ode to Sappho 

Incompatible 

Confidence 

Found Wanting 

In Darkness 

Brother Filippo 

An Autumn Ride 

Before Dawn 

My Castle 

Malvern 

To My Little Cousin 

Trepidation 

At Meissen 

Winter on the Zuyder Zee .... 

Ardour 

A Complaint 

The Laying of Ghosts 

To a Baby 

O Lady Mine 

Butterfly 

To 

A Windy June 

Hollyhocks

The Truth 

A Mountain Path

A Pearl Necklace 

To Roses

Ox the Sea-shore

My Valley .

To ....

Finis ....

Old Verses 

On the Road to Tennaley Town

A Little Dirge

The Poet

A Night in Italy 

Hands and Lips

We Two ....

To ....

North and South

On the Hill Top 

The Moon

Speculation 

The Meeting

To Some One

Out at Sea 

Faith ....

The Scar

Comparison 

An Interlude

Radclyffe Hall - A Short Biography

Radclyffe Hall - A Concise Bibliography

KINSHIP

Sunlight and shade,

Moorland and glade,

Evening and day,

Winter and May,

Troubadour breeze,

Amorous trees,

Pondering Hills,

Gold daffodils

Born of the Spring,

Thrushes that sing

Passionate notes

From downy throats,

Be unto me

Each one of ye

Sister or brother;

And Earth be my mother!

THE MOON'S MESSAGE

The Moon looked in at the window,

And smiled as I wrote to you,

She lay like a frail white maiden,

In shadowy folds of blue.

Her bosom was bare and tender,

And slight, for she still was young,

And down from her dainty shoulders

A