Record Number: 30750

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Meeting held at School House, Leighton Park. Jan 27th 1942 J. Knox Taylor in the Chair.
[...]
5. The subject was a provocative one “Modern Poetry” & we very gladly welcomed Kenneth Nicholson into our midst, as he had kindly consented to come & talk to us about modern poetry & to lead us into the strange regions of this somewhat unknown world.
6. Gerard Manley Hopkins & W. B. Yeats were apparently the leaders in breaking away from the old traditions of poetry-making, & of setting up a new form, even expressing a new spirit. We then listened to poems of T. S. Eliot, Wilfred Owen & W. Auden, & saw how this new way progressed & was elaborated.
We were bewildered, astounded & intrigued by turns! Through the intracacies [sic] of “sprung rhythm”, down the “arterial roads” of poetical imagery of the early 1920’s to the more apparently intelligible sombreness of recent poetry, we were led gently but inexorably, by our persuasive speaker, to see & realise that however strangely we might regard this literature of our age, we must acknowledge the urgency & sincerity of what the modern poet had to say.
7. Isabel Taylor, Roger Moore, Margaret Dilks, A. G. Joselin, and F. E. Pollard all contributed readings, some from the poets already mentioned, others from the poetry of Day Lewis, Stephen Spender, McNeice & Dylan Thomas. Some pleased, others perplexed; we capitulated before such a phrase as “As a madman shakes a dead geranium”, but again were revived with what appeared to us as more lucid poems. One which pleased us with its clarity, evoked the remark from F. E. Pollard “that the only thing wrong with it was what was the matter with that except that it was immediately intelligible”!
Such was our introduction to “Modern Poetry,” whether or not we appreciated its “difference,” we were deeply grateful to K. Nicholson for inspiring us with the desire to read more.

[signed as a true record by] Arnold G. Joselin 23/2/42. [at the club meeting held at 72 Shinfield Road: see XII Book Club Minute Book, p. 113]'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

27 Jan 1942

Country:

England

Time

evening

Place:

city: Reading
county: Berkshire
specific address: School House, Leighton Park School

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary reactive unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

[a member of the XII Book Club – one of Isabel Taylor, Roger Moore, Margaret Dilks, A. G. Joselin, or F. E. Pollard]

Age:

Unknown

Gender:

Unknown

Date of Birth:

n/a

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

n/a

Religion:

Quaker

Country of Origin:

Unknown

Country of Experience:

England

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

Members of the XII Book Club

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Wystan Hugh Auden

Title:

[unknown]

Genre:

Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

30750

Source:

Manuscript

Author:

n/a

Title:

XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 4 (1938-1943)

Location:

private collection

Call No:

n/a

Page/Folio:

109–112

Additional Information:

n/a

Citation:

[unidentified acting secretary of the XII Book Club] , XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 4 (1938-1943), private collection, 109–112, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=30750, accessed: 03 May 2024

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Additional Comments:

Material by kind permission of the XII Book Club. For further information and permission to quote this source, contact the Reading Experience Database (http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/contacts.php).