Blackbird bountiful
Two blackbird poems delight Alison Chisholm with their blend of simple delivery and profound meaning
Alison Chisholm
There is no shortage of poems about birds. From the tiny wren whose nest is celebrated in Wordsworth’s poem to the Ancient Mariner’s albatross, birds trill and flutter through the pages of anthologies and collections. With its glorious song, the blackbird gets plenty of attention, and this is the one that moved John Drinkwater and Corinne Lawrence to produce their poems.
Known better nowadays, perhaps, as a dramatist, performer and theatre manager, John Drinkwater was one of the Georgian poets. He was also numbered among the Dymock Poets, along with Lascelles Abercrombie, Rupert Brooke, Robert Frost, Wilfrid Wilson Gibson and Edward Thomas, based on their geographical connections with the village in Gloucestershire, which is referenced in The Blackbird. He was a highly regarded poet who was considered for the post of poet laureate on the death of Robert Bridges in 1930, although the post was awarded to John Masefield. This piece appeared in a collection published in 1919.