Joan Hunter Dunn has died!

[Nemesis]

Betjeman!

See:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/poetry/article3761024.ece

 

[Nigel Watts]

I too had no idea she was a real person.

The poem cant be completely autobiographical because if I remember correctly it ends "we sat in the cark park till quarter to one/and now I'm engaged to Miss Joan Hunter-Dunn"

Does anyone know how to make a good lime juice and gin? And does it taste the same if not sipped on a cool verandah during the six o'clock news?

 

[Craig]

You been listening to Snoop Doggy Dog again Nigel??

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gin_and_Juice

 

[Nemesis]

There are some interesting comments under the Times article, and an informative obit in the Indy:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/joan-hunter-dunn-muse-to-john-betjeman-811188.html

I wouldn't know about the gin and lime - I suspect the verandah was part of the charm. I don't have a verandah... (not actually that keen on gin...)

http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoem.do?poemId=1537

This recording was made on 1 December 1967 at the Poetry Society in association with the Talking Tape Co. and first appeared as 'Sir John Betjeman Reading a Selection of His Own Poems'.

 

[Penners]

You been listening to Snoop Doggy Dog again Nigel??

Right, let's see:

EeeyiyiyiyiyahtheDoggPound'sinthehou-owwse (the bomb)
EeeyiyiyiyiyeahtheDoggPound'sinthehou-oww-owse
Snoop Doggy, Do-owww-ohhhh-oggg (the bomb)
Snoop Doggy, Do-owww-ohhhh-oggg (Dog)

Miss Joan Hunter Dunn, Miss Joan Hunter Dunn,
How mad I am, sad I am, glad that you won.
The warm-handled racket is back in its press,
But my shock-headed victor, she loves me no less.

Yes, I think I know which I prefer.

 

[Craig]

Exactly Penners - I knew you would be getting down with your homeboys.

 

[Penners]

Exactly Penners - I knew you would be getting down with your homeboys.

Yes, I usually do that before my last mug of Horlicks of the day. (Although one of my homeboys prefers Ovaltine).

 

[Nigel Watts]

You been listening to Snoop Doggy Dog again Nigel??

No, more Jim Parker and Banana Blush (actually the musical setting of this poem was on another "album" - see link)http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sir-John-Betjemans-Britain-Betjeman/dp/B000007XHH/ref=pd_sim_m_h__img_2

The lines keep coming back:

"And cool the verandah that welcomed us in/To the six o'clock news and a lime juice and gin"

"Love thirty, love forty, O weakness of joy/The speed of a swallow, the grace of a boy
With carefullest carelessness gaily you won/I am weak from your loveliness, Joan Hunter-Dunn"

"O strongly adorable tennis girl's hand"

The hairs on the back of my neck have gone all tingly

 

[Nemesis]

Have you listened to the clip I posted of the Great Man reading it?

It's wonderful stuff. I'm actually reading his biog at the mo.

'The Hillman is waiting...'

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Have you listened to the clip I posted of the Great Man reading it?

It's wonderful stuff. I'm actually reading his biog at the mo.

Which one? Bevis, Candida or A.N ? (If the last, note the entertaining mnemonic contained in the note alleged to be from the Bath teashop lady).

 

[Nemesis]

The last and I am aware...

 

[Penners]

...the grace of a boy

That line always worried me slightly...

 

[Nemesis]

Wash out that mind.

The way he pronounces is such a time warp... the cone ifers and the gorf club...


http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/aug/26/books.booksnews

 

[Gareth Hughes]

...the grace of a boy

That line always worried me slightly...

Don't see why it should, as a young man (at least) Betjeman was decidedly "unmarried"

 

[Nemesis]

His first collection of poems, Mount Zion, appeared in 1932, and the following year he married Penelope Chetwode. In 1951 he met Elizabeth Cavendish, lady in waiting to Princess Margaret, who became his lover for the rest of his life. In 1972 he was appointed Poet Laureate, and his most famous work for television, Metroland, was aired in 1973. He died on May 19 1984.

As one wot rites pomes (although of late my muse has been neglectd) I point out it is Creative Writing dahling and NOT autobiography always.

 

[Nemesis]

LOVE ON A TRICYCLE
by kendrive @ 2007-09-14 - 08:10:58
For a few days we have been looking at Betjeman's attitude to women.

He lusted over them young and muscular!

But his passion obviously produced feelings of guilt, as evidenced by today's offering.



SENEX

Oh would I could subdue the flesh
Which sadly troubles me!
And then perhaps could view the flesh
As though I never knew the flesh
And merry misery.

To see the golden hiking girl
With wind about her hair,
The tennis-playing, biking girl,
The wholly-to-my-liking girl,
To see and not to care.

At sundown on my tricycle
I tour the Borough's edge,
And icy as an icicle
See bicycle by bicycle
Stacked waiting in the hedge.

Get down from me! I thunder there,
You spaniels! Shut your jaws!
Your teeth are stuffed with underwear,
Suspenders torn asunder there
And buttocks in your paws!

Oh whip the dogs away my Lord,
They make me ill with lust.
Bend bare knees down to pray, my Lord,
Teach sulky lips to say, my Lord,
That flaxen hair is dust.

John Betjeman

Note: "Senex", in literature, especially comedy, refers to an old man as a stock figure.


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Tags: + betjeman, + bicycle, + guilt, + life, + love, + lust, + poem, + poems, + poetry, + sports, MY SORT OF GIRL
by kendrive @ 2007-09-13 - 07:15:54
I have already commented that Betjeman liked the lusty, busty, sporty type of girl.

Here he is again extolling the virtues of the athletic "Olympic Girl".



THE OLYMPIC GIRL

The sort of girl I like to see
Smiles down from her great height at me.
She stands in strong, athletic pose
And wrinkles her retroussé nose.
Is it distaste that makes her frown,
So furious and freckled, down
On an unhealthy worm like me?
Or am I what she likes to see?
I do not know, though much I care,
xxxxxxxx…..would I were
(Forgive me, shade of Rupert Brooke)
An object fit to claim her look.
Oh! would I were her racket press'd
With hard excitement to her breast
And swished into the sunlit air
Arm-high above her tousled hair,
And banged against the bounding ball
"Oh! Plung!" my tauten'd strings would call,
"Oh! Plung! my darling, break my strings
For you I will do brilliant things."
And when the match is over, I
Would flop beside you, hear you sigh;
And then with what supreme caress,
You'd tuck me up into my press.
Fair tigress of the tennis courts,
So short in sleeve and strong in shorts,
Little, alas, to you I mean,
For I am bald and old and green.

John Betjeman

http://poemsandprose.blog.co.uk/?tag=tennis

 

[Nigel Watts]

AGRICULTURAL CARESS

Keep me from Thelma's sister Pearl!
She puts my senses in a whirl,
Weakens my knees and keeps me waiting
Until my heart stops palpitating.

The debs may turn disdainful backs
On Pearl's uncouth mechanic slacks,
And outraged see the fire that lies
And smoulders in her long-lashed eyes.

Have the such weather-freckled features.
The smooth sophisticated creatures?
Ah, not to them such limbs belong,
Such animal movements sure and strong.

Such arms to take a man and press
In agricultural caress
His head to hers, and hold him there
Deep buried in her chestnut hair.

God shrive me from this morning lust
For supple farm girls, if you must,
Send the cold daughter of an earl -
But spare me Thelma's sister Pearl!



I cant get enough of it! I think I need a cold shower now.

 

[Nemesis]

I cant get enough of it!

Betjeman of course? :shock:

 

[Nigel Watts]

I wonder if this is it?

CLASSIC GIMLET

1 1/4 ounces of gin
1 1/4 ounces Rose's lime juice
Lime wedge

Stir the gin and lime juice in a mixing glass with ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Squeeze the lime wedge into the drink.

After my shower I think I'll try one

 

[Nemesis]

Ah - Rose's lime juice!

I hope you have a really nice cocktail glass at the ready...



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