{"id":1655,"date":"2011-11-05T20:08:44","date_gmt":"2011-11-05T20:08:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk\/?page_id=1655"},"modified":"2012-04-07T20:40:45","modified_gmt":"2012-04-07T20:40:45","slug":"sonnet-by-gamel-woolsey","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk\/?page_id=1655","title":{"rendered":"Sonnet by Gamel Woolsey"},"content":{"rendered":"



\nWhen I am dead and laid at last to rest,
\nLet them not bury me in holy ground –
\nTo lie the shipwrecked sailor cast ashore –
\nBut give the corpse to fire, to flood, to air,
\nThe elements that may the flesh transform
\nTo soar with birds, to float where fishes are,
\nTo rise in smoke, shine in a leaping flame –
\nTo be in freedom lost in nothingness,
\nNot garnered in the grave, hoarded by death.
\nWhat is remembrance that we crave for it?
\nLet me be nothing then, not face nor name;
\nAs on the seagull wings where bright seas pour,
\nAs air that quickens at the opened door:
\nWhen I am dead, let me be nothing more.
\n

\nFrom The Collected Poems of Gamel Woolsey<\/em>, Warren House Press, 1984.
\n\u00a9 Kenneth Hopkins and the Estate of Gamel Woolsey
\n

\nGamel Woolsey and her husband Gerald Brenan spent many summers at Welcombe and her reference in this poem to ‘the shipwrecked sailor cast ashore’ is undoubtedly based on her knowledge of Hawker. Like Ronald Duncan, Woolsey and Brenan first came to Welcombe in 1937, and Duncan himself wrote of how ‘Various inhabitants here with one foot in the grave remember and tell me of the Rev. Stephen Hawker’ (sic). (Journal of a Husbandman, <\/em>p.85)<\/p>\n

Gamel Woolsey was born in South Carolina in 1895 and moved to New York in her early twenties. After a brief first marriage she became involved in an intense relationship with Llewelyn Powys and his wife, Alyse Gregory, and when the couple returned to England she came to live near them in Dorset. By 1930 she was looking to escape what had become a painful situation for all concerned and a chance meeting with Brenan gave her the opportunity she needed. The couple remained together until Woolsey’s death in M\u00e1laga, Spain in 1968.<\/p>\n

LINKS<\/strong><\/p>\n

– Literary Places: Welcombe, West Mill and the Marsland Valley<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

– Sundial Press: introduction to Patterns on the Sand<\/em> by Barbara Ozieblo<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

– Lost Magazine: article by Emma Garman<\/strong><\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

PUBLISHED WORKS<\/strong><\/p>\n

‘Faith at Forty Second Street’, a poem. Published in the Literary Review Supplement <\/em>of the New York Evening Post<\/em>, June 3, 1922.
\n<\/strong>Middle Earth<\/em>, a collection of 36 poems. First edition, London: Grant Richards, 1931, with a linocut frontispiece by Frank Pollard. First U.S. edition, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1932. Republished by Kenneth Hopkins\u2019 Warren House Press, 1979.
\nDeath’s Other Kingdom<\/em>, a first-hand record of the Spanish civil war. London: Longmans Green & Co., 1939. Republished by Virago Press, 1988, and as M\u00e1laga Burning<\/em> with an introduction by Zalen Grant by Pythia Press, 1998. Republished by Eland Publishing Ltd., 2004.
\nSpanish Fairy Stories<\/em>. London: Transatlantic Arts, 1944. Illustrated by Mario Armengol.
\nThe Spendthrifts<\/em> (La de Bringas by Benito Perez Galdos). Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1951. Illustrated by Charles Mozley.
\n‘The Star of Double Darkness’, a short story. Published in The Saturday Evening Post<\/em>, June 18, 1955.
\nTwenty Eight Sonnets<\/em>. Warren House Press, 1977.
\nThe Last Leaf Falls<\/em>. Warren House Press, 1978.
\nThe Search For Demeter<\/em>. Warren House Press, 1980.
\nThe Weight of Human Hours<\/em>. Warren House Press, 1980.
\nLetters to Llewelyn Powys, 1930-1939. <\/em>Warren House Press, 1983.
\nCollected Poems<\/em>. Warren House Press, 1984.
\nOne Way of Love<\/em>, a novel. Accepted for publication by Gollancz in 1930 but withdrawn at the last minute because of concerns regarding its sexually explicit content. Eventually published by Virago Press, 1987.
\nPatterns in the Sand<\/em>, a novel. Still unpublished – see Sundial Press website.<\/p>\n

FURTHER READING<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gerald Brenan, Personal Record: 1920 \u2013 1972.<\/em> Knopf, 1975.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy, Gerald Brenan: The Interior Castle. <\/em>Sinclair-Stevenson, 1994.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I am dead and laid at last to rest, Let them not bury me in holy ground – To lie the shipwrecked sailor cast ashore – But give the corpse to fire, to flood, to air, The elements that may the flesh transform To soar with birds, to float where fishes are, To rise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1116,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1655","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1655"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1712,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1655\/revisions\/1712"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}