A Mystery Solved
Reading edition
Apparently the poem about “a polished female friend” is to be found in one of Mr. E. V. Lucas’s books. It was written, it seems, by a parson named Whur or Whurr, who flourished in Norfolk about a century ago. Whur delighted in all calamities, and described a father, on the birth of a child with no arms, exclaiming: “This armless child will ruin me.” No one has yet brought to my notice any whole volumes of bad verse worth acquiring, though various choice fragments have reached me. There is an epithalamium ending:
And never, never she’ll forget The happy, happy day, When in the church, before God’s priest, She gave herself away.
There is an in memoriam poem beginning:
Dear Friends, we had a sudden Blast Which came to us unexpected.
And there is a loyal song to their present Majesties in which occur the lines:
Our King and Queen are never proud They mingle with the densest crowd.
But the most attractive new specimen is a poem on the late monarch’s death. It was printed and sold as a broadsheet in London, and runs:
The will of God we must obey. Dreadful—our King taken away! The greatest friend of the nation, Mighty monarch and protection! Heavenly Father, help in sorrow Queen Mother, and them to follow, What to do without him who has gone! Pray help! help! and do lead us on. Greatest sorrow England ever had When death took away our Dear Dad; A king was he from head to sole, Loved by his people one and all. His mighty work for the Nation, Making peace and strengthening union— Always at it since on the throne: Saved the country more than billion.
There are two more verses. Personally, I find this considerably more interesting than any of Mr. Alfred Noyes’s various Coronation Odes.