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Fond Memories of Robert Graves
| Article
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10505 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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2 / 1986 |
2,177 Words |
| Author
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Christopher V. Davies
Christopher V. Davies, a British writer currently living in
the Netherlands, is also a singer and songwriter. |
" 'What is the use or function of poetry nowadays?' is a question not the less poignant for being asked by so many silly people. The function of poetry is religious invocation of the Muse; its use is the experience of mixed exaltation and horror that her presence excites. But 'nowadays'? Function and use remain the same; only the application has changed. This was once a warning to man that he must keep in harmony with the family of living creatures among which he was born, by obedience to the wishes of the lady of the house; it is now a reminder that he has disregarded the warning, turned the house upside down by capricious experiments in philosophy, science and industry, and brought ruin on himself and his family."
--Robert Graves, from The White Goddess
With the passing of Robert Graves on December 7, 1985, at the ripe age of ninety, the English-speaking world lost one of the greatest poetic voices of the twentieth century. To the general public, Robert Graves's best known work was the I Claudius, and Claudius the God saga, which the (London) Times Literary Supplement described as "the only successful historical novel of the century." His early autobiography, Goodbye to All That, led John Wain to comment in the (London) Observer: "From the moment of its first appearance [it was] an established classic."
In his excellent study, The Poetry of Robert Graves, Professor Michael Kirkham acknowledges in the Introduction that Graves is "surely the best contemporary writer in English of a lucid, plain but well-bred prose." But the most valuable contribution of this flamboyant personality, "arguably our most distinguished man of letters"
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