Edward Lucie-Smith
British poet, critic and anthologist.
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My uncle [mother’s brother] wrote rather twee books of memoirs in the period between the two World Wars. They’d be deeply embarrassing to read today. In the 19th century my mother’s family were involved with the Pre-Raphaelites, and a direct ancestor of mine was Lady Byron’s lawyer, who advised her to leave the poet because of her husband’s affair with his half-sister. A much earlier ancestor on my mother’s side was chaplain to Richard Corbet, Bishop of Oxford, who wrote the poem ‘Farewell Rewards and Fairies’. In his ‘Brief Lives’ Aubrey describes them getting drunk together in the cellars of Christchurch, Oxford.
A poet of my kind
Skates on the thinnest ice.
It's ten years since I heard, and
Then one day a letter comes.
It's neutral stuff, until I
Delve into the envelope
Again and find your photo,
Handsome still, and not a line
To tell me why you sent it.
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