Record Number: 31775

---

Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Meeting held at “Hilliers”, Northcourt Avenue. 18.XI.40
    Rosamund Wallis in the chair.

[...]

5. Mary S. W. Pollard read “Ode to Autumn”. Rosamund Wallis read “Ode to a Nightingale” these served as an introduction to a talk by F. E. Pollard on Keats’ Poetry. He described his lack of interest in the affairs of the world. Contrasted Keats’ attitude to Nature with those of Wordsworth & Shelley – told how he lived essentially in the present and expressed this in his writings rather than regrets for the past or hopes for the future. Keats, he thought was influenced chiefly by Shakespeare, Spencer and perhaps Milton, while among his immediate friends the influence of Leigh Hunt was a regrettable one. Keats in his turn had a very great influence on most of the Poets of the 19th. Century. Finally Mr. Pollard quoted from the Ode on a Grecian Urn:
‘Beauty is Truth, truth beauty – that is all
Ye know on earth and all ye need to know”.
adding with great temerity that he doubted the truth of this famous statement.

[...]


[signed] Howard R. Smith
13/12/40'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

18 Nov 1940

Country:

England

Time

evening

Place:

city: Reading
county: Berkshire
specific address: Hilliers, Northcourt Avenue

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary reactive unknown
single serial unknown

---

Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Rosamund Wallis

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

n/a

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

n/a

Religion:

Quaker or associated with the Friends

Country of Origin:

n/a

Country of Experience:

England

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

Members of the XII Book Club

Additional Comments:

n/a

---

Text Being Read:

Author:

John Keats

Title:

Ode to a Nightingale

Genre:

Poetry

Form of Text:

Unknown

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

---

Source Information:

Record ID:

31775

Source:

Manuscript

Author:

Margaret Dilks

Title:

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

Location:

private collection

Call No:

n/a

Page/Folio:

79–82

Additional Information:

n/a

Citation:

Margaret Dilks, XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 4 (1938-1943), private collection, 79–82, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=31775, accessed: 03 May 2024

---

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).