And the Swansea Blitz of 19th-21st February 1941
Some years ago I covered Lynette Roberts' life and poetry with special reference to her poem 'Crossed and Uncrossed'. To avoid repetition, it's probably worth checking the earlier post : Lynnete Roberts was born in Argentina in 1909, and her family lived in Britain during World War 1,though returned after the conflict. Around 1923 Roberts and her younger sister were sent to a convent school in Bournemouth. Her connections with the Anglo-Welsh Modernist current only developed in the later 1930's.
Her work came to mind again after I read Owen Sheers' counter-factual novel 'Resistance' (2007) . Set in 1944, the scenario concerns D Day hopelessly rebounding,along with the Soviet Army facing major setback in the East. Triggering in turn a German invasion of Britain via landings on the beaches of south east Wales. The novel has faced adverse criticism for extending the 'What If' model too far so as to become unusable. But there are some great scenes set in an isolated valley village, where a small German patrol live alongside the local women. It is fair to point out that this stretch of coastline, with its miles of beaches was considered a possible site for an enemy invasion in 1940.
Swansea was the most bombed city in Wales. Already bombed on 17th January 1941, the city suffered a blitz lasting three days 19th-21st February 1941. 230 people were killed, nearly 6,500 were made homeless, 570 businesses were destroyed. On 21st February the flames of Swansea could be seen as far away as north Devon. GARDINER The Germans were keen to disrupt supplies coming in from the Atlantic to Britain, which made the port a particular target. At the outset of war, it was decided not to evacuate the children from Swansea CALDER. Roberts noticed in her diary that her village had taken evacuees from London, and could not house children who had lost their homes during the bombing of Swansea. Diaries,Letters, and Recollections.
When World War 2 broke out, Roberts was newly married and living in the remote village of Llanyibri, Carmarthenshire, just over 30 miles from Swansea. Her husband Keidrich Rhys,a leading Anglo-Welsh poet, was called up to serve as a gunner in 1940. Isolated with only the occasional foray into the literary world, Roberts' observations of the natural world,being an outsider who still felt a strong affinity to Welsh mythology and history, facing all the challenges of wartime, she began writing a series of poems which were published in 1944 and 1951. Her wartime epic poem 'Gods With Stainless Ears', was written between 1941-1943. Dedicated to Edith Sitwell, it was a five part poem written largely in the present tense in a reportage style. Each part contains an 'argument' introduction, and the overall poem contains explanatory end notes. There is a notable use of quite obscure, even obtuse words:
From Part III of 'Gods With Stainless Ears'
To encircle the clay. Mounting ships higher,
Disturbing the colder water of shells. Near
Nightjars undisclosed,where green icy stars
Ripple above the corn this late seaharvest....
Night falling catches the flares and bangs
On gorselit rock. Yellow birds shot from
Iridium creeks,-Let the whaleback of the sea
Fall back into a wrist of ripples, slit,
Defledged by this evening's raid;jigging up
Like a tapemachine the cold figures February
19th,20th,21st. A memorial of Swansea's tragic loss
Now and then Roberts included a line which suddenly cuts home. Such as in the 'Argument' introduction to Part I
"Machine-gun is suggested by the tapping of a woodpecker",
Showing how even the most natural of sounds in the countryside now has a war-association,especially as her husband was a gunner.
Or further into Part I
"Soldier lonely whistling in full corridor train"
Conjures a photograph or picture, perhaps could spur the writing of a short story.
In a lesser known work 'Village Dialect: Seven Stories' (1944), Lynette Roberts wrote a short piece titled 'Swansea Raid' .
Swansea's sure to be bad. Look at those flares like a swarm of orange bees.
They fade and others return. A collyrium sky, chemically washed Cu.DH2. A blasting flash impels Swansea to riot! Higher, absurdly high, the sulphuric clouds roll with their stench or ore, we breath naphthalene air, the pillars of smoke writhe, and the astrigent sky lies pale at her sides." Diaries, Letters and Recollecions
Roberts's marriage failed a few years after the War, her two children remained with her. Sadly by the end of the 1950's Roberts' mental health deteriorated and her writing ceased. Her strange brew of Modernism and New Apocalytpic poetry, with intentional archaic language and evoking of mythology, fell out of fashion. Roberts' died in 1995, largely forgotten,sometimes a footnote via her connections to famous names such as Robert Graves, Alun Lewis, Edith Sitwell, Vernon Watkins, T.S Elliot.
However, in the 21st century her work has at last been republished,and studied, mainly for its unique vision of life during wartime, 'Lynette Roberts Collected Poems' edited by Patrick McGuiness was published in 2005, followed by ' Lynnette Roberts Diaries, Letters and Recollections' also edited by Patrick McGuiness. In 2013, Owen Sheers included a 30 minute programme about Roberts' connection to Llanyibri as part of his 'A Poet's Guide to Britain' series.
The current debate about 'Welshness' has not really looked at Roberts' poetry. Our Culture/BBC Certainly not would be a straightforward process. In fact at one stage the villagers of Llanyibri considered Roberts to be a possible spy, a humiliating experience she depicted well in the poem 'Raw Salt on the Eye'. Collected Poems However, this did not diminish her affinity to her adopted country and Roberts returned to Wales and died in Carmarthenshire. Moreover, Lynette Roberts is credited with assisting Robert Graves in the writing of 'The White Goddess', which is more of an enchanting work of mythology rather than anthropology or history.Diaries,Letters and Recollections
A further post about Lynette Roberts will hopefully appear on this blog later in the year.
Picture Credit
Photograph of bombers flying at time of Swansea raid, taken at Cwmgwrach, Vale of Neath, used via terms of creative licence courtesy of Peoples Collection Wales
Online
Cross and Uncrossed Previous post about Lynette Roberts from this blog, 2017
Our Culture Isn't Fantasy BBC webpage about Wales and contemporary 'mysticism'
Swansea at War BBC feature
Books
'Lynnette Roberts Collected Poems' edited by Patrick MCGUINNESS , Carcanet, 2005
'Lynnette Roberts Diaries, Letters and Recollections' edited by Patrick MCGUINNESS , Carcanet, 2008
'The People's War Britain 1939-1945', Angus CALDER, Jonathan Cape 1969/Pimlico 1989
'Wartime Britain in 1939-1945', Juliet GARDNER, Headline Books, 2004
'Reading the Ruins, Modernism, Bombsites, and British Culture' Leo Mellor, Cambridge University Press, 2011.
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Contact: Michael Bully World War 2 Poetry@mail.com ( please ram words together without spaces)
Please note that any errors or schoolboy howlers in the above piece are the responsibility of this writer, and not to be attributed to the sources that have been cited.
