Next week (26 September 2010) we note the 70th anniversary of the death of W. H. Davies (1871-1940), the “tramp poet” from Newport. He was the author of the well-known poem “Leisure”, which begins:
We have no time to stand and stare.”
A manuscript copy of this poem was bought by the Library to add to its already impressive collection of W. H. Davies manuscripts.
We also hold some 30 other manuscript poems by W. H. Davies, some of which are unpublished e.g. ‘A Boy’s Sorrow’ a poem relating to the death of a neighbour.
At the age of twenty-two, he obtained a passage for New York, arriving in the United States with only a few dollars in his pockets. He thereafter began the career, which he described in his Autobiography of a Super-Tramp (1908) – tramping thousands of miles across America, most often begging but also undertaking casual work and riding illicitly on freight trains. En route to the gold-diggings at the Klondike, Davies fell under a moving train, severing his right foot; his right leg was subsequently amputated below the knee.
For further information on manuscripts and letters by W. H. Davies held at the Library, see our new webpage on W. H. Davies.