W.H Davies
Leisure

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare? –
No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

William Henry Davies

The name of William Henry Davies may not immediately spring to everyone’s mind; however, his poem on leisure may be a lot more familiar, even if it is only due to the fact that it has been used as an advert on the television.

W. H. Davies, as he is more commonly known, was born in Newport, just down the road from Caerleon, in 1871 the son of a publican. Following his apprenticeship as a picture-frame maker and a series of labouring jobs, he travelled to America, first to New York and then to the Klondike.

He came back to Britain from Canada after he had a foot amputated by a train he was trying to jump onto in order to avoid paying. In London he led an impoverished life in lodging houses and then worked as a peddler, selling trinkets in the countryside. His first poems were published when he was 34.

In 1923 he married Emma, who was much younger than he was and who had previously been a prostitute.

Most of his poetry is on the subject of nature or life on the road and exhibits a natural simple, earthy style. He also wrote two novels and autobiographical works, his best known being Autobiography of a Super-Tramp.

Of course, as Caerleon was not far from where he was born in the docks of Newport, yet totally different, it was natural that he would often walk there and write about it, as he did in Days That Have Been.

Can I forget the sweet days that have been, When poetry first began to warm my blood; When from the hills in Gwent I saw the earth Burnt into two by Severn’s silver flood

When I would go alone at night to see The moonlight, like a big white butterfly Dreaming on that old castle near Caerleon While at its side the Usk went slowly by.

He died in 1940, having achieved international fame but probably not as much as was due to him.