- Frances Cornford
Frances Crofts Cornford (née Darwin; 1886-1960) was an English poet.
She was the daughter of the
botanist Francis Darwin and Ellen Crofts, born into theDarwin — Wedgwood family . She was a granddaughter of the British naturalistCharles Darwin . Her elder half-brother was the golf writerBernard Darwin .Frances Crofts married
Francis Cornford ; they had 5 children: Christopher, Clare, Helena, Hugh, and the poet John.Matthew Chapman is their grandson through Clare.She wrote poems including "The Guitarist Tunes Up":
"With what attentive courtesy he bent
"Over his instrument;"
"Not as a lordly conqueror who could"
"Command both wire and wood,"
"But as a man with a loved woman might",
"Inquiring with delight"
"What slight essential things she had to say"
"Before they started, he and she, to play".
"One of Frances Cornford's poems was a favourite of the late
Philip Larkin and his lover Maeve Brennan. "All Souls' Night" uses the superstition that a dead lover will appear to a still faithful partner on that November date. Maev, many years after Larkin's death, would re-read the poem on All Souls:"My love came back to me "
"Under the November tree "
"Shelterless and dim. "
"He put his hand upon my shoulder,"
"He did not think me strange or older,"
"Nor I him. "
"Although the myth enhances the poem - it can be read as the meeting of older, former lovers.
External links
* [http://www.poetry-archive.com/c/cornford_frances_bibliography.html Bibliography]
* [http://www.literarynorfolk.co.uk/Poems/the_coast_norfolk.htm "The Coast: Norfolk" by Frances Cornford]
*NRA|P6573
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