Okay then, is this poem Mamble by John Drinkwater some sort of response to Edward Thomas’ Adlestrop?
He and Edward were part of the same loose poetry group known as Dymock poets and published/edited by Edward Marsh as Georgian poets. Adlestrop came into being, according to Helen Thomas, sometime after 24 June, 1914, so all I need is a date for Mamble! and the answer as to which idea came first and why. Was it a friendly challenge, a response from one to the other or just a random coincidence?
If Mamble was not written as the equivalent of a ‘workshop’ or challenge then how does it stand as a poem? Whatever the initiation of each, Adlestrop is the poem that caught the imagination of the public and editors and is still a potent example of a picture of English countryside, attitude and now, if not then, nostalgia. Mamble is a well known poem by readers of Drinkwater but not by the wider public. Perhaps its very lyrical style doesn’t sit well with its sentiments that seem to be derogatory and turn you away from the village, citing that any other place may do just as well, seemingly hinting ‘better ‘. The last line attempts to clarify that the whole area of Worcestershire is covered in blossom in April but for me the damage is done. This widening of view is also offered by Thomas for ‘Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire’ but in a way that carries the reader’s eye even further afield, no limit.
So, I have to say the Adlestrop offers a moment in time and place that remains ‘timeless’ in content and simplicity whilst Mamble begins with a negative and almost offers a road of good intentions, finally saying ‘go anywehere else!’ Adlestrop is of stillness and the opportunity of space., Mamble of disquiet and movement but still ring-fenced by boundaries. Is this the intention? Then reading the two poems together offers intriguing interpretations. Ah well, looks like I will have to do a chunk of research to find which came first. Mustn’t count my chickens though!
John Drinkwater. 1882- 1937 From Swords and Ploughshares, published 1915
Mamble I Never went to Mamble That lies above the Teme, So I wonder who’s in Mamble, And whether people seem Who breed and brew along there As lazy as the name, And whether any song there Sets alehouse wits aflame. The finger-post says Mamble, And that is all I know Of the narrow road to Mamble, And should I turn and go To that place of lazy token That lies above the Teme, There might be a Mamble broken That was lissom in a dream. So leave the road to Mamble And take another road To as good a place as Mamble Be it lazy as a toad; Who travels Worcester county Takes any place that comes When April tosses bounty To the cherries and the plums.
Adlestrop from ‘Poems’ (1917) Edward Thomas Adlestrop
Adlestrop Yes. I remember Adlestrop— The name, because one afternoon Of heat the express-train drew up there Unwontedly. It was late June. The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat. No one left and no one came On the bare platform. What I saw Was Adlestrop—only the name And willows, willow-herb, and grass, And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry, No whit less still and lonely fair Than the high cloudlets in the sky. And for that minute a blackbird sang Close by, and round him, mistier, Farther and farther, all the birds Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.
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