{"product_id":"nichols-robert-epic-wind","title":"NICHOLS, Robert Epic Wind","description":"\u003ch3 style=\"font-variant: small-caps\"\u003eA HANDWRITTEN WAR POEM,  TOGETHER WITH AN ALS\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA handwritten copy of Nichols’ war poem \u003ci\u003eEpic Wind\u003c\/i\u003e, written in black ink to recto only, on blue paper with margin to verso in red (19.5 x 32cm); title followed by the seven stanzas, signed by Nichols with a flourish to the lower right hand corner; together with a typed copy of the same (19.5 x 32cm), titled ‘From the “Times” - November 8th, 1928, on watermarked ‘Century White’ paper; and a two-sided manuscript ALS on ‘Yew Tree House, Winchelsea’ headed notepaper, also signed by Nichols to the lower margin of verso; a little creasing; else fine survivals, now housed in a custom-made red cloth flapcase by Riviere \u0026amp; Son, London. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRobert Malise Bowyer Nichols was born in 1893 and educated at Winchester College and Trinity College, Oxford. At the age of twenty one he was commissioned into the  Royal Field Artillery, serving on the Western Front, including the Battle of Loos and the Battle of the Somme from 1914 until 1916 when, suffering with what was then known as severe ‘shell shock’, he was sent home to recover. From 1917 he began to give poetry readings, and in 1918 he was sent, as a member of an official British propaganda mission, to the US, where he also gave readings. When the war ended in 1918, Nichols began to move in social circles in London which included his mentor Edith Sitwell, and Aldous Huxley also became a long-term friend and correspondent. Though he attempted to woo Nancy Cunard his sonnets, he went on to marry Norah Denny in 1922 at St Martin-in-the-Fields. He also began to write plays, most famously \u003ci\u003eWings over Europe \u003c\/i\u003e(1928), which he collaborated on with Maurice Browne, and which later became a Broadway hit. In 1985, Nichols was among the sixteen Great War poets commemorated on a slate stone unveiled in Westminster Abbey's Poet's Corner. The inscription was taken from Wilfred Owen's Preface to his poems and reads: \"My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe present poem was printed in \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e on November 8th 1928, and evokes the sentiment of power, rage, shock and loss still evident in Nichols writings ten years after the end of the First World War. Nichols poetry erred on the side of idealistic and patriotic, removed from his contemporaries such as Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves. Here, he describes a metaphorical wind so strong as to rock the very foundations of the world, summoning ‘old England’s doughty dead’ and invoking the memory of courage and sacrifice which was still fresh in the mind of a nation recovering from the horrors of the conflict. As the poem develops he turns from reflecting on the past to looking forward, to England’s future: ‘All such as doubt this England’s power \/ To be yet more than she has been, \/ In seeming Autumn blaze with flower, Mock promised winter with wild green…”. It is perhaps no coincidence that the poem was published just three days before the tenth anniversary of armistice day. While it later appeared in Nichols’ poetry collection \u003ci\u003eSuch was my Singing\u003c\/i\u003e, this appears to be its first iteration, with a few subtle differences which were subsequently changed in the 1942 edition: ‘flamelike’ for ‘flaming’, etc. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTogether with the two iterations of the poem is an original contemporary manuscript note, from Nichols, to a correspondent, perhaps at the Times. “I think it isn’t a bad poem really - though 5th and 6th verses are a little flat. I can’t sell you the original MS because it goes to my doctor - my health is rather poor these days - who says there are at least twenty good surgeons in England but only ten poets…so I’ll charge you nothing.” “Your letter is doubly welcome as the public don’t seem to like my work”, he continues, “I wrote a little novelette called 'Under The Yew' this year but was I think of some merit but up to date I haven’t sold 400 copies…” \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA fascinating collection of original items. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eBlessed be those for England died,\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eBlessed be those for her shall live.  \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSKU: \u003c\/strong\u003e1800272\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fold the Corner","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57583700017476,"sku":"1800272","price":2500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0943\/8711\/0212\/files\/1800272.jpg?v=1792944334","url":"https:\/\/foldthecornerbooks.co.uk\/products\/nichols-robert-epic-wind","provider":"Fold the Corner Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}