'MY LOVE IS LIKE ALL LOVELY THINGS' - A REVIEW

 
BLOSSOMS FROM THE BEYOND:

A REVIEW OF C. CAUNTER'S
 ‘MY LOVE IS LIKE ALL LOVELY THINGS: 
SELECTED POEMS OF E. E. BRADFORD’ 

BY BARRY VAN-ASTEN
 
 
 

The new Arcadian Dreams publication of ‘My Love is like all Lovely Things: Selected Poems of E. E. Bradford’ (2023) by C. Caunter is a refreshingly welcome volume on the subject of Uranian poetry by the Reverend Bradford which for those who do not know of his work or his life is a delightful introduction. The author temptingly casts the first stone by flagrant flattery, crediting my piece on Bradford – ‘Desire and Divinity: A Brief Biographical Sketch of Reverend Edwin Emmanuel Bradford (1860-1944) [p. 301], an honour which of course shall have no influence upon my review of the volume. My first encounter with Reverend Bradford was reading his volume of poetry ‘The Romance of Youth and Other Poems’ (1920) which I have to admit initially disliking, in fact, I condemned it as ‘dull and insipid’ for my concerns at the time  were chiefly the decadent nineties, those aesthetic, tender Uranian hyacinths of Oxford, cooling their hands ‘in the grey twilight of Gothic things’, but then I came to his first volume of poems – ‘Sonnets Songs and Ballads’ of 1908 and was pleasantly surprised and transformed. There has been a tendency to overlook Bradford and his poetry for those who dwell more upon the classical elements shrouded in Greek mythology, (Bradford opposes the excessive pagan impulses of classical mythology) but Bradford’s poetry, often in its simple ballad style, has some marvellous roses blooming among the garden weeds. The author, C. Caunter, wisely chooses to open the volume with Bradford’s poems, selecting from the twelve published volumes from 1908-1930 before setting his own place at the table in the form of his biographical essay – ‘Eyes Lit with the Light of Other Skies’ which offers some surprising glimpses into the life of Reverend Bradford, such as the fact that he ‘had the village boys dig a swimming pool next to the vicarage [at Nordelph in Norfolk where he was vicar at Holy Trinity from 1909] and pile the excavated soil to resemble small mountains to remind him of Switzerland’ [p. 256] and insights into his friendship with fellow Uranian poet and curate, Samuel Elsworth Cottam (1863-1943) whose volume of verse, ‘Cameos of Boyhood and Other Poems’ (1930) shared similar sentiments to Bradford. The author presents a fascinating and detailed biographical piece on Edwin Emanuel Bradford, born in Torquay on 21^st August 1860 and educated there at Castle School and his friendship with a boy named ‘Jack’ who ignited his tender feelings towards the homoerotic nature within him and an Irish boy whose kiss created a ‘flame / of passion pure that knows no shame’ and ‘showed love full-grown’, in other words, his true sexual identity had been revealed to him which would drive his passions into adulthood; in fact, he called upon these images which shaped his young life and seemed to haunt him, longingly, throughout several poems. Tragically, at the age of thirteen in 1873, two explosive events occur: his mother, Maria, died of liver disease and his father, Edwin Greenslade Bradford, grief-stricken and in mental decline, fearing the fate of the asylum which sent his own father James to the grave, took his own life the following May of 1874 by cutting his throat with a bread knife and so at the age of just thirteen young Edwin had lost both his parents. In 1881 at the age of 21 he enters Exeter College, Oxford to study Theology and meets there the 17 year old Lancashire born Samuel Elsworth Cottam, with whom he may or may not have had a physical romantic attachment for by now, the Anglo-Catholic Bradford had accepted his innate sexuality and his attraction towards boyhood, framed within his Christian theological ideals of love as the author rightly suggests, he ‘saw beauty on earth as an expression of the divine; the celebration of beauty therefore equalled the celebration of God’ [p. 235]. The poet graduates from Oxford in 1884 with his B.A. degree in Theology [M.A. 1901, B.D. 1904 and D.D. 1912] and takes holy orders the same year he becomes deacon; he is ordained priest the following year and curate two years later in 1887 [St. Saviours, Walthamstow]; throughout this period he has been writing poems and short stories which have found publication in various literary outlets. The next phase of his life is spent in Russia and France, the former from 1887-1889 and the latter from 1890-1899.

Bradford writes beautifully upon the brotherly bond of boyhood, its exuberance and wonder where there is a ‘sense of the glory of things / that is presently lost or defiled’ [‘A Child’s Delight’. p. 76] and he writes almost seductively about the young ‘Adam’ or ‘Apollo’ that he encounters and his poetry is filled by such creatures, beautiful, pure and somewhat innocent, not as yet corrupted by the influence of ‘Eve’ or affected by the disturbances of the exoteric world or wearied by its ‘contaminating breath, / its vulgar mediocrity, / its soulless, humdrum life-in-death’ [‘Joe and Jim’. p. 89]; like Carroll, who had a fascination for the sylph-like, nubile, pre-pubescent innocence of girlhood, Bradford, conjures similar ‘playmates’ in the form of young boys whom he sees as highly honourable, chaste and virtuous and there is a suggestion of adoration that goes beyond the physical, transcending earthly desire which enters spiritual realms infusing his adolescent idols of adulation with a supernatural quality; a celestial manifestation reflecting god’s holy creation where ‘God writes it plainly on his radiant face’ [‘The Purity of Youth’ p. 137] and carries a spark of the divine for he knew ‘that this child of mortal clod / was but a blossom of the Love of God.’ [‘A Little Child’ p. 115]; he even spies upon the angelic form of a boy at prayer through a window, believing he can ‘descry / bright gauzy wings around his shapely shoulders!’ [‘The Boy Ideal’ part IV. p. 166] and transforms his intoxications of boyhood with an ‘otherworldly’ presence where eyes become stars and the ‘slender form was fair / with iridescent colours manifold’ for to Bradford the vision of loveliness ‘seemed not mortal, but a child of light’. [‘A Child of Light’ p. 170] In many ways, Bradford is not unlike that other dreamer and lover of youth, Ralph Chubb (1892-1960), who invoked a Blakesian vision of boyhood, exalted by the beautiful essence of God – the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins saw the same elemental essence of ‘God’s Grandeur’ flourishing in nature and for Bradford, boyhood became his landscape, solemn and substantial, where pastures are filled with the promise of endless possibilities; there, the Parnassian plane where he is merely a pilgrim at the altar of boyhood, is populated by the noble and simple forms of divine beauty before sin deadens the soul and the author, tends to agree with this vision of Bradford’s ecstatic image of youth, with their ‘transient earthly beauty, exemplified by the short-lived splendour of boyhood’ as ‘an emblem of divinity and ideal perfection’. [p. 258] He [Bradford] appears non too flattering to the female form seeing woman as a destructive force which can ruin boyhood – ‘turn away from the wench, with her powder and paint, / and follow the Boy, who is fair as a saint’ [‘The Call’ p. 118], thus we find the dichotomy of the carnal, physical pleasure of lust and the sanctified purity of spiritual love which can often times seem a little vague or ambiguous in the hands of a Uranian poet like Bradford; in the poem ‘Corpus Sanum’ (p. 136) he says: ‘youth’s tender body, clean and rosy-white, / is not that flesh corrupt we have to fight: / its natural appetites are sane and right; / its instincts true.’ Many of his poems contain the notion of an accidental encounter whereby the playfulness of a simple yet knowing look or gentle touch hold untold possibilities of romance, an idealisation of affection which shall surely sustain the mental and spiritual side of the poet without physically manifesting in reality – ‘A few shy looks and smiles: then, by degrees, / perhaps these rise / to shyer kisses: but no honey’d lies / or flatteries’ [‘Boyhood’s Votaries’ p. 94] But let us not forget the true nature of the Uranian poet, prone to such desires beneath the clerical collar which symbolises strong faith and steadfast morals and a cloak of respectability; is it possible that what was born in his imagination remained there, fruiting in solitary, sunless pastures and did not enter the world of physical gratification? Were the chains of Christian devotion and dogma ever broken by desire? A carnivore may observe and admire a beautiful bird (‘as birds in breeding time wear plumage bright’ [‘Lines on Seeing a Child Bathing’ p. 10]) without the desire and compulsion to consume it. I believe there simply must have been instances when passions rose above the flirtatious (perhaps the coded ciphers will open a Pandora’s box of revelations?) – it is a path along which we must tread carefully for the uneducated philistine sees nothing but the stamp of lust in their maniacal, consistency of ignorance and if Bradford’s poem ‘In Quest of Love’ from the volume ‘In Quest of Love and Other Poems’ published in 1914 has elements of autobiography, which the author of the ‘Selected Poems’ believes and which I concur, then we know that Bradford delighted in the sacred beauty of lips touching which like a betrothal, sealed the perfection of love and innocence – ‘for when I hardly dare to kiss your feet / how proud am I to have your lips to kiss!’ [‘Perfect Love’ p. 113] In another poem, Bradford says that the mouth ‘is the hottest place / beneath the sun! / His breath, when we embrace, / brings on a drouth / for kisses: in that case / ten seem as one!’ [‘The Heat of Love’ p. 66]

We know that the poet John Betjeman had a fondness for Bradford’s poetry and that he visited Reverend Bradford at Nordelph on Sunday 8^th December 1935, writing in his diary the following day that the elder poet was: ‘A modernist but likes ritual. Last boy friend called Edmund [? Edward] Monson. Not had a boy friend for 30 years.’ [‘John Betjeman: New Fame, New Love’. Bevis Hillier. John Murray. London. 2002. p. 63] The author mentions John Betjeman’s visit to Nordelph on page 287 correctly saying the Monson relationship, whatever its true nature was, must have occurred around 1905 or thereabouts, but I was surprised that this was not followed up further for I have found and believe the object of Bradford’s affection to have been an Eton boy named Edmund St John Debonnaire John Monson, born in Monte Video, Uruguay on 9^th September 1883 who attended Eton School from September 1896- July 1899 during a time when the Reverend John James Hornby and Francis Warre-Cornish presided over the institution, [‘The Eton Register, being a continuation of Stapplton’s Eton School Lists, 1893-1899. Private printing. Spottiswoode & Co, Ltd. Eton. 1901] Edmund, who later became a British diplomat and ambassador to several countries and inherited the title of Baronet, was the second born son of Sir Edmund John Monson (1834-1909), diplomat and 1^st Baronet who married Eleanor Catherine Mary Munro (1858-1919, whom he met in Uruguay) on 6^th July 1881; Edmund’s older brother, Maxwell William Edmund John Monson (21^st September 1882-11^th January 1936) was also at Eton during this time (he later served in France in 1914 at the outbreak of war with the Intelligence Corps as a 2^nd Lieutenant, reaching the rank of Captain and transferring to the Royal Army Service Corps). Monson’s father was a diplomat at the British Embassy in Paris from October 1896 till the end of 1904 (Bradford was an assistant curate at St George’s church, Rue Auguste Vacquerie, Paris from 1890-1899) and his son, young Edmund was at Eton around the time Bradford was curate at St John’s parish church, Eton – 1899-1905. Just before Edmund’s 17^th birthday (Bradford was approaching 39 years old), he leaves Eton School and as for the ‘relationship’ ending, Edmund followed his father into the British Diplomatic Service in 1906 and travelled to far off places – ‘Constantinople, Tokyo, Paris and Teheran’ [‘An Arabian Diary’. Sir Gilbert Falkingham Clayton (1875-1929). University of California Press, Berkeley. 1969. p. 339 – Clayton also mentions Monson staying at the Residency Hotel, Cairo and leaving for ‘Jerusalem today; (Thursday 3^rd December 1925)] he has been the consul at Teheran and has been appointed Minister at Bogota’ p. 164] Later he becomes Minister to Colombia in 1926, Mexico 1929-34, Baltic States 1934-37, Sweden 1938-39 (see also ‘Sources in British Political History, 1900-1951’, volume 2. Chris Cook. Macmillan Press, London. 1975) – he became 3^rd Baronet in 1936 and was Knighted KCMG in the 1938 New Year Honours List; the baronetcy was granted residence at the 17^th century Thatched House Lodge, Richmond Park, Surrey by King Edward VII in 1905 after Sir Edward Monson senior retired. Edmund St John Monson died aged 85 on 16^th April 1969 [the Monson Baronetcy passed to his younger brother, Sir George Louis Esme John Monson (28^th October 1888-21^st November 1969), 4^th Baronet after whose death the title became extinct as none of the three brothers – Maxwell, Edmund or George had children]. There is no real substantial evidence for any acquaintance between Bradford and Edmund Monson except of course the word of Betjeman whom we have no reason to doubt but whether or not there was anything but a passing fancy we cannot say and we can never really know the nature of the intimacy for the spiritual and the sensual are not so easily detached and I believe it would be wrong to impose modern ideals of society and attitudes to sex upon Bradford’s time, a time of public school peculiarities and as we all know, sodomy is and has always been as English as roast beef! Between 1905 and 1909 Bradford was curate of Christ Church, Upwell in Norfolk before he became Vicar of Holy Trinity Church in Nordelph, Norfolk.

The author serves a fine dish indeed and asks how his ‘open, unapologetic boy-love poetry’ was received so favourably in its time and why his platonic sense of affections between man and boy was popular, saying that ‘even if one wanted to argue that the times were more naïve… it cannot be maintained that gullible, chaste interpretations were what allowed his poetry to receive an overwhelmingly positive press across mainstream publications’ [p. 281]. The author gives us much to think about! Was Bradford’s passion for boyhood a desire to remain always thirteen years old, an age when he lost both his parents – ‘had I not better be / always a boy?’ [‘The True Aristocracy’. Chapter XXX: Peter Pan. 1923, quoted on page 196] and was there an element of self-denial, of an ardent heart forever aching in a wilderness where his finer feelings flourish? – ‘I thought of him all day, / and I dreamed of him all night’ [‘When I Went a-Walking’ p. 98] His convictions remained strong and his belief in God and boyhood were unwavering. He died at Nordelph vicarage on 7^th February 1944 aged 83.

The author, C. Caunter has caused me to re-evaluate Bradford and re-consider the ‘provocative’ nature of his poetry and affections a little closer but one thing is clear and that is the author has written a scholarly and beautiful tribute to the good reverend which is a wonderful addition to any collection and which no doubt will sit alongside the timeless immortals of d’Arch Smith’s ‘Love in Earnest’ (1970) and Symons’s ‘The Quest for Corvo’ (1934) et al. and I am sure Bradford would not complain of such fine company for ‘how dull this world would be / without youth’s sweet romance and poetry!’ [‘On Sunday Night’ from ‘The New Chivalry and Other Poems’ (1918), XVIII, quoted on page 147].