I hear leaves drinking rain

I hear leaves drinking rain;
I hear rich leaves on top
Giving the poor beneath
Drop after drop;
'Tis a sweet noise to hear
These green leaves drinking near.

And when the Sun comes out,
After this Rain shall stop,
A wondrous Light will fill
Each dark, round drop;
I hope the Sun shines bright;
'Twill be a lovely sight.
- "The Rain"



WH Davies, author of this paean to the weather - famous for his Autobiography of a Super Tramp, and for his most renowned poem Leisure - was born and brought up in the same street as my maternal grandmother in Newport, South Wales.

He described his childhood home (to Osbert Sitwell, of all people - how fortuitous was his journey from tramp to society poet) thus: "an imbecile brother, a sister, a maidservant, a dog, a cat, a parrot, a dove and a canary bird." I don't think my Nan had any of those (except sisters) - but then again, nor did she go "adventuring" across Britain and America, sleeping rough and losing a leg, until being "discovered" and lauded as a poet by such luminaries as George Bernard Shaw and D.H. Lawrence...

Both she and "WH" would no doubt have been more than used to the unseasonably "Welsh weather" we are experiencing here in London at the moment, however.

William Henry Davies (3rd July 1871 – 26th September 1940)

Bugger all, innit?

On this, the centenary of that greatest of Welshmen the poet Dylan Thomas, among the quirkier tributes - we missed the whole celebratory festival in his old drinking haunts of Fitzrovia in London, including the arrival of his writing shed(!), which is apparently touring the country - was a most unlikely coupling, of the audio kind.



For none other than the fantabulosa latter-day "Queen of Cymru" Cerys Matthews (of Catatonia fame) and the normally gruff (Welsh) anchor man of BBC Radio 4's deadly serious Today programme this morning read together a lovely extract from the Bard's master-work, Under Milk Wood:

• Listen on the BBC

Perhaps the funniest part was when he got Cerys to say - out loud, at breakfast-time - the name of Milk Wood's notorious village "Llareggub" backwards, as it was meant to be read - "Bugger All"!



“Poetry is not the most important thing in life... I'd much rather lie in a hot bath reading Agatha Christie and sucking sweets.”

“An alcoholic is someone you don't like, who drinks as much as you do.”

“I know we're not saints or virgins or lunatics; we know all the lust and lavatory jokes, and most of the dirty people; we can catch buses and count our change and cross the roads and talk real sentences. But our innocence goes awfully deep, and our discreditable secret is that we don't know anything at all, and our horrid inner secret is that we don't care that we don't.”

“When one burns one's bridges, what a very nice fire it makes.”

“I do not need any friends. I prefer enemies. They are better company and their feelings towards you are always genuine.”

“Wales: The land of my fathers. My fathers can have it!”

Dylan Marlais Thomas (27th October 1914 - 9th November 1953)

Dylan Thomas Centenary website

More Dylan Thomas classics, courtesy - this time - of Richard Burton (who was born to read Under Milk Wood, and, indeed, Thomas' work in general.

My previous blog showcasing Cerys and Catatonia.

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STOP PRESS

Even more Dylan Thomas!

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