'Meeting held at 7, Marlborough Avenue. 15th Jan, 1944
����A. G. Joselin in the chair.
[...]
2. The minutes of the last meeting were read and signed
[...]
5. Howard Smith opened the evening on Shelley with a biographical sketch. [...]
6. We adjourned for refreshment[.]
7. F. E. Pollard read �Ode to the West Wind�
8. Margaret Dilks gave brief appreciation of Shelley�s poetry. This started a general
discussion in which nearly all took part � whether he influenced or was influenced by
his contempor[ar]ies , & what effect he had, if any, on future poets. On these
questions opinion varied, but all agreed with F. E. Pollard that Shelley�s verse is
supremely �poetical�.
9. To illustrate Shelley�s passion for liberty and reform Bruce Dilks read from �The
Masque of Anarchy� which was inspired by the Peterloo Massacre in 1819.
10. Rosamund Wallis read some stanzas from �Adonais�. F. E. Pollard read a short
poem entitled �A Lament�[.] Thus, our thoughts being with the departed, the meeting
ended on a lighter note. One member quoted a touching little verse from the
Berkshire Chronicle In Memoriam notices, which another capped by some lines written
by a school-boy on the relative merits of perpetual roasting and eternal hymn-singing.
Lines which gained the boy a severe reprimand from his head-master, and a �Fiver�
from his father.
[signed as a true record by] S A Reynolds 14/2/44'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Members and perhaps guests of the XII Book Club Print: Newspaper
