Item 176 - Letter from Emily and Albert Cook to R. C. Trevelyan

1 item

Leith Hill, Dorking. - Thanks for Trevelyan's book ["From the Shiffolds"] and good wishes; comment on favourite poems. "Rarely, rarely comest thou" is 'just R.C.T. It breaths [sic] of his gentle melancholy and discontent. He finds an answer but he goes on questioning and the questioning is the absorbing thing'. Wonders if Trevelyan has considered publishing a "Selected Poems"; thinks this might have 'wide appeal'. Would not talk like this if Trevelyan were not as he is; knows he would be 'the first to agree that [Cook's] lack of education' is not necessarily a disqualification from 'having an appreciation of poem'; without that and the knowledge that 'where man's destiny is concerned I am with the gods... desiring as I do nothing at the expense of my fellow men' life 'would have been miserably rotten'. Invites Trevelyan, since he has 'written of a child of six years old' to come and hear David, who is also six, 'sing some lovely songs'; thinks he would agree that David is 'not a "fox" but a "rabbit"' [a reference to one of Trevelyan's poems]