Here, in the opening stanzas of a poem in a characteristic mode, Causley chronicles the fortunes of errant youth: By focusing on his mastery of the ballad, they may have given the impression of a Johnny One-Note who, in his idiosyncratic disregard for the main currents of modernism, was engaged in an attempt to write as if Pound and Eliot had not existed.

When Charles Causley's Collected Poems was published in 1975, reviewers in American magazines generally praised his work but somehow managed to relegate him to the limbo of minor poets. Secret Destinations: Selected Poems 1977-1988 Sauce is a brand of brown sauce well-known in Britain.Ī review I did of Causley some years ago: I had not thought that it would be like this. I hear them call, 'See where the stream-path is!Ĭrossing is not as hard as you might think.' My mother shades her eyes and looks my way The same three plates, the tin cups painted blue. She pours tea from a Thermos, the milk straight Her hair, the colour of wheat, takes on the light. Has spread the stiff white cloth over the grass. My mother, twenty-three, in a sprigged dressĭrawn at the waist, ribbon in her straw hat, Still two years old and trembling at his feet. They are waiting for me somewhere beyond Eden Rock: Given Charles Causley’s recent death, perhaps this moving, skilful and subtly allusive poem about his parents is an appropriate one to post. Nursery Rhyme of Innocence and Experience Watching, amazed, the white tumbling bears He is now a child in the land of Christmas:

Staring through the green freezing sea-glass He lies, his eyes quarried by glittering fish, She quotes this short elegy for a sailor and personal acquaintance of Causley's who died in WW2. He was a close friend of Ted Hughes and the novelist/dramatist Susan Hill, whose poignant memoir can be read at .uk Of his free verse pieces, Ten Types of Hospital Visitor is among the most hilarious. 'Timothy Winter' combines humour, shrewd observation and compassion. There's a detailed biographical and critical essay by Dana Gioia on the Net, and on other sites samples of his poetry.Ī primary schoolteacher for thirty years, he wrote for children as well as adults - mostly in traditional forms, especially the ballad. Several affectionate tributes have been paid to Cornish poet Charles Causley on the occasion of his recent death.

Charles causley poems