The Complete Verse of Noel Coward by Coward, Noël -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover Title Page Contents Illustrations Credits And Acknowledgements Dedication Introduction 1. The Young Idea (1907–?1922)

‘Vegetable Verse’

Love Ditty to a Turnip ‘I had a little onion’

The Animal Kingdom

The Canary Sonnet to a Hermit Crab Any Part of Piggy The Great Awakening

Romantic/Gothic

Goblins The Blackness of Her Hair . . . Beyond Raratonga The Conversion of a Cynic If Wishes Were Horses Pierrot and Pierrette Columbine and Harlequin

Nonsense Verse/Limerick

The Island of Bosh Rhapsody ‘There was an old Marquis of Puno’

Scenes of Suburbia

Personal Reminiscence James and Belinda Elizabeth May Suppositions and Expectations Rubaiyat of a Man About Town Tooting Bec A Sad, Sad Story Till I Return Souvenir of Infancy

‘Those Were the Days’

Letter from the Seaside 1880 1901 Honeymoon 1905

2. ‘Cod Pieces’

‘The Swiss Family Whittlebot’ (Sketch – 1923) Early Peruvian Love Song Exultance Passion The Lower Classes Early Whittlebot Poems

Daddy and Boo Gob Heigho for Hockey

Poems by Hernia Whittlebot

‘My Bedroom’ ‘To My Favourite Hostess’ ‘Agamemnon and Sappho’ ‘Sonata for Harpsichord’ ‘Apple Blossoms’ ‘Poor Shakespeare’ ‘The Bride Cake’ ‘To Noël Coward’ ‘The Dancing Class’ ‘To an Old Woman in Huddersfield’ ‘Pied-à-Terre’ ‘Greasy Garbage’ ‘A May Morning’ ‘Yellow Nocturne’ ‘Romance’ ‘A Country Fair’

Chelsea Buns (1925)

Neurotic Thoughts on the Renaissance To a Maidenhair Fern Nous n’avons plus de chichi Chelsea Buns Contours Guava Jelly Garibaldi Family Circle Silly Boy Candelabra Children’s Tales Written from a Mansard Window in a Velvet Dress Victorian Rhapsody for Lesser Minds Spotted Lilies Mrs Gibbon’s Decline and Fall Sunday Morning at Wiesbaden Misericordia To My Literary Parasites To Badrulbador Frampton Contemporary Thought Send Me My Hat Theme for Oboe in E Flat Oleograph Hic Haec Hoc I Will Protect My Sister Christmas Cheer Caprice de Noël

Spangled Unicorn (1932) Janet Urdler

Reversion to the Formal How Does Your Garden Grow Hungry Land Necromancy

Elihu Dunn

Harlem Ma People

E. A. I. Maunders

Moss Curve In Curve Out Church of England

Tao Lang Pee

Sampan The Emperor’s Daughter The Voice in the Bamboo Shoot

Serge Lliavanov

Every Day Theatre Party Harlot’s Song

Juana Mandragágita

Picnic Near Toledo ‘Flamenco’ Torero

Crispin Pither

‘Deirdre’ ‘The Whisht Paple’ ‘Pastoral’

Albrecht Drausler

First Love Freundschaft ‘Youth’

Jane Southerby Danks

Legend Sicilian Study Richmond Boating Song Old Things Are Far the Best

Ada Johnston

The Nursemaid Sunburn To Rudyard Kipling Dawn

3. ‘Family . . . Friends . . . and Others’

‘Family’ . . . Violet Coward

Telegram to My Mother on Her Eightieth Birthday To an Octogenarian

Lorn Loraine

To Lorn Lornie Is a Silly-Billy ‘Here I lie sweetly in bed’ Reflections by Master on Awakening A Tribute to Lorn from Master ‘When I visit Venice, Italy’ ‘In the deep hush before the dawn’ ‘Lornie Darling, how I loved your news’

Joyce Carey

‘To pretty winsome Joyce’ Ode to Joyce ‘Go, Joycie, with your upper parts uncovered’ Saturday, January the Sixth (1940)

Jack Wilson

‘Baybay’s gone . . .’ ‘We came to the Ivy . . .’ Don’ts for Dab Notes on the Correct Entertainment of Royalty

Kay Thompson/Graham Payn

Darling Kay and Little Lad

Cole Lesley

Birthday Ode

Gladys Calthrop

‘Lock your cabin door my darling’

‘Friends’ . . .

Jamaica House Guest Goldeneye Calypso Goldeneye Opus No. 2 ‘Morning Glory’ Don’ts for My Darlings Toast to Sir Hugh and Lady Foot and Blanche Blackwell

Edwina Mountbatten

‘I could really not be keener . . .’

Hope Williams

The Birth of Hope

4. Words of War

Personal Note ‘Lornie, whose undying love’ ‘Pretty, Pretty, Pretty Lorn’ ‘Why did you fall, Winnie?’ ‘Reply-Reply’ A Fallen Postscript ‘Dearest Mrs Lorn Loraine’ ‘Because of the vast political intrigues’ ‘Lornie, dear Lornie . . .’ ‘Master’s back and all alone’ ‘Dearest sympathetic lovely Lorn’ With All Best Wishes for a Merry Christmas 1939 Bill Peter Paul Major Leathes Notes on Liaison News Ballad Reply-Reply ‘Sir Campbell is coming’ Olwen, Olwen Fécamp These Are Brave Men Lines to a Remote Garrison Notes on an Admiral’s Hangover Lie in the Dark and Listen Note on Our New National Heroine Political Hostess Sing of the Shepherd’s Night We Must Have a Speech from a Minister ‘Where are the bright silk plaids . . .’ Tintagel Convalescence Lines to an American Officer Canton Island Postscript Happy New Year I’ve Just Come Out from England Bread and Butter

‘Dear Admiral . . .’ To Admiral Sir James Somerville Bread and Butter Letter to Lord and Lady Killearn Casa Medina Bread and Butter Letter to Jean and Bill Fleming Bread and Butter Letter to Mr and Mrs R. G. Casey To His Excellency Field Marshal Viscount Wavell To Admiral the Lord Louis Mountbatten Reflections ‘Oh Lady Clementi!’ Reunion The Battle of Britain Dinner, New York, 1963 Let the People Go Not Yet the Dodo

5. Shall We Join the Ladies . . . ?

Mrs Mallory Social Grace I’ve Got to Go Out and Be Social The Lady at the Party Morning Glory In Masculine Homage Open Letter to a Mayor Quiet Old Timers Mary Baker Eddy

What a Saucy Girl Midst the Hustle and the Bustle . . .

Marie Stopes

If Through a Mist

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Whoops! Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Beatrice Eden

‘Oh, Beatrice dear, what a superb weekend’ Letter to Beatrice Eden

6. Indefinite Thoughts on the Infinite

A Miniature Death Lines to God Meditation on Death Do I Believe? A Prayer: Most Merciful God This Is the Moment If I Should Ever Wantonly Destroy Condolence Nothing Is Lost Father and Son Ignatius Hole Onward Christian Soldiers Lines to a Little God

7. The Theatre: ‘A Temple of Dreams’

The Boy Actor Ode to Italia Conti Concert Types

The Pianist The Tenor The Contralto The Humorist The Child Prodigy The Soprano When Babsie Got the Bird To Meg Titheradge To Mary MacArthur Irene Vanbrugh Memorial Matinée: The Epilogue Tribute to Ivor Novello ‘Dearest Binkie, dearest Bink’ Thoughts on Beatrice Lillie ‘Darling Alfred, dainty Lynn’ I Resent Your Attitude to Mary Tribute to Marlene Dietrich Epitaph for an Elderly Actress Critics

Routine for a Critic (Dirge)

To Mr James Agate Lines to a Film Censor (1940) Novel by Baroness Orczy The Garden of Allah

Words . . .

Tarantella Boots A Question of Values After a Surfeit of Sir Philip Sidney

. . . and Music

Opera Notes

. . . and a Literary Footnote

The Ballad of Graham Greene ‘Dear Mr Graham Greene, I yearn’

8. ‘I Travel Alone’

On Leaving England for the First Time P&O 1930 Pleasure Cruise Souvenir Lines to a Fellow Passenger The Little Men Who Travel Far Malta Go to Malta, Little Girl Thoughts on Corsica

Descriptive Hotel Napoleon Bonaparte, Ile Rousse Advice from a Lady Who Has Visited the Island Before Calvi The Bandit Venice Oh Walter Dear Bali Bora Bora Martinique Oh Dear The Quinta Bates (Aunt Bates) From One Chap to Another: A Complaint Jeunesse Dorée

9. ‘If Love Were All’

This Is to Let You Know I Knew You without Enchantment I Am No Good at Love

10. ‘The Party’S Over Now’

When I Have Fears I’m Here for a Short Visit Only

Footnote

Part 8

Editor Biography Imprint

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