Harry Graham (poet)

Jocelyn Henry Clive 'Harry' Graham (1874–1936) was an English journalist, writer of humorous verse in a tradition of grotesquerie and black humor also exemplified by Hilaire Belloc, and lyricist for operettas and musical comedies.

Life and career

Graham was educated at Eton and Sandhurst. He was a captain in the Coldstream Guards, and he often wrote under the pseudonym "Col D Streamer".

From 1898 to 1901 Graham assisted Lord Minto, the Governor-General of Canada. Graham kept a journal of his trip across Canada with Minto to the Klondike Gold Rush in the Yukon in 1900, called "Across Canada to the Klondyke", which he later presented to Minto, and which was eventually published.

After returning to Britain, Graham worked as a journalist and author of popular fiction and history, including "A Group of Scottish Women" (1908). His poetry collections, such as "Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes" (1899), for which he used the pseudonym Colonel D. Streamer, "More Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes (1930)", and "When Grandmama Fell Off the Boat" contain such verses as those shown below.

Graham was engaged to Ethel Barrymore but they did not marry. He married Dorothy Villiers in 1910, and they had a daughter named Virginia Thesiger who was also a poet. [ [http://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/pages/authors/virginia_graham.htm Virginia Graham, Consider the Years, Persephone Books, twentieth century novels, out of print books, inter-war novels, Twentieth century reprints ] at www.persephonebooks.co.uk]

During World War I, Graham turned to writing lyrics for English operettas and musical comedies, including "Tina" (1915) "Sybil" (1916), the 1917 hit operetta "The Maid of the Mountains" and "A Southern Maid" (1920), and English adaptations for European operettas such as "Madame Pompadour" (1923), "The Land of Smiles" (1931) and many others.

Published works

*Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes (1898)
*Little Miss Nobody (1901)
*Ballads of the Boer War (1902)
*Baby's Baedeker (1902)
*Perverted Proverbs (1903)
*Misrepresentative Men (1904)
*Fiscal Ballads (1905)
*More Misrepresentative Men (1905)
*Verse and Worse (1905)
*A Song-Garden for Children (1906)
*Misrepresentative Women (1906)
*Familiar Faces (1907)
*A Group of Scottish Women (1908)
*Deportmental Ditties (1909)
*The Mother of Parliaments (1910
*The Bolster Book (1910)
*Lord Bellinger An Autography (1911)
*Canned Classics (1911)
*The Perfect Gentleman (1912)
*The Motley Muse (1913)
*Splendid Failures (1913)
*The Cinema Star (1914)
*The Complete Sportsmen (1914)
*State Secrets (1914)
*Tina (1915)
*Sybil (1916)
*The Maid of the Mountains (1917)
*Rhymes for Riper Years (1919)
*Biffon and His Circle (1919)
*Our Peg (1919)
*A Southern Maid (1920)
*A Little Dutch Girl (1920)
*The Lady of the Rose (1921)
*Whirled into Happiness (1922)
*Head Over Heels (1923)

*Madame Pompadour (1923)
*The World we Laugh In (1924)
*Our Nell (1924)
*The Buried Cable (or Dirty Work at the Crossroads) (1924)
*Toni (1924)
*Orange Blossom (1924)
*Betty in Mayfair (1924)
*Cleopatra (1925)
*Riquette (1925)
*The Grand Duchess (1925)
*Katja the Dancer (1925)
*Clo-Clo (1925)
*The Last of the Biffins (1925)
*Merry Molly (1926)
*My Son John (1926)
*The Blue Mazurka (1926)
*Strained Relations (1926)
*Lady Mary (1928)
*By Candle Light (1928)
*The World's Workers (1928)
*Hunter's Moon (1929)
*Adams Apples (1930)
*More Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes (1930)
*The Good Companions (1931)
*Laiting in Waiting (1931)
*White Horse Inn (1931)
*The Land of Smiles (1931)
*Viktoria and her Hussar, Palace Theatre (1931) [cite web|url=http://musicaltheatreguide.com/composers/abraham/viktoria.html|title=Viktoria and her Hussar|accessdate=2008-03-16|publisher=The Guide to Light Opera & Operetta]
*Casanova (1932)
*Rise and Shine (1932)
*Roulette (1932)
*Doctor Orders (1932)
*The Biffin Papers (1933)
*Happy Families (1934)
*The Private Life of Gregory Gorm (1936)
*When Grandmama Fell Off the Boat: the best of Harry Graham inventor of ruthless rhymes (1988; Harper Collins Publications)

Ruthless Rhymes

;Tender Heartedness

Billy, in one of his nice new sashes,
Fell in the fire and was burnt to ashes;
Now, although the room grows chilly,
I haven't the heart to poke poor Billy.

;Indifference

When Grandmamma fell off the boat,
And couldn’t swim, and wouldn’t float,
Maria just sat by and smiled -
I almost could have slapped the child!

;Compensation

Weep not for little Leonie,
Abducted by a French Marquis!
Though loss of honour was a wrench,
Just think how it's improved her French.

;Calculating Clara

O'er the rugged mountain's brow
Clara threw the twins she nursed,
And remarked, "I wonder now
Which will reach the bottom first?"

;Tragedy

That morning, when my wife eloped
With James, our chauffeur, how I moped!
What tragedies in life there are!
I'm dashed if I can start the car.

;L'Enfant Glacé

When Baby's cries grew hard to bear
I popped him in the Frigidaire.
I never would have done so if
I'd known that he'd be frozen stiff.
My wife said: 'George, I'm so unhappé!
Our darling's now completely "frappé"!

;Uncle

Uncle, whose inventive brains
kept evolving aeroplanes,
fell from an enormous height
upon my garden lawn last night.
Flying is a fatal sport,
uncle wrecked the tennis court.

;Accident

"There's been an accident!" they said,
"Your servant's cut in half; he's dead."
"Indeed!" said Mr Jones, "and please
Give me the half that's got my keys."

References

* [http://www.ruthlessrhymes.com/harry_graham/facts/ Information about Graham and his writings]
* Sleeve Notes for the Hyperion recording of "The Maid of the Mountains"
* [http://home.tiscali.nl/centenaar//henk/Harry%20Graham.html Dutch site about Graham with images and many helpful links]

External links

* [http://www.ruthlessrhymes.com/ "Ruthless Rhymes: A site dedicated to the poetry of Harry Graham and the myriad of morbid poets he inspired"]
* [http://www.ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=4666 Harry Graham's Broadway operettas and musicals] at the IBDB database
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hometruths/20051212_harry.shtml Photo of Graham and interview of his niece from the BBC Radio 4]

Bibliography

*Graham, Harry, "Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes" (1899)
*Graham, Harry, "More Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes (Edward Arnold & Co, London, 1930)"
*Graham, Harry. "Across Canada to the Klondyke". New York: Methuen (1984)
* [http://www.electricscotland.com/history/women/scottish_women_ndx.htm "A Group of Scottish Women", 1908]