THE BONADVENTURE

THE WAGGONER
and other poems by
Edmund Blunden

JOHN CLARE
Poems chiefly from MSS.
selected and edited with
a biographical note by
Edmund Blunden
and
Alan Porter

THE SHEPHERD
and other poems of
Peace and War by
Edmund Blunden
awarded the
Hawthornden Prize, 1922
Third Edition

Copyright 1922

Printed in Great Britain by Butler & Tanner, Frome and London

To
H.W.M.
THIS
“ROUND TRIP”

AUTHOR’S NOTE

7A few facts are perhaps needed in this place. Theautumn of 1921 found me in bad health, whichseemed to me to be gaining ground. The Editorsfor whom it is my privilege to work were of thatmind too, and suggested a sea voyage. I am oneof that large class who can afford little more thanvoyages in ships which are hauled over on chains;but this was allowed for in every possible way bymy Editors, in consequence of whose active generosityand that of the owners to whom my case was madeknown, I suddenly found myself bound for theRiver Plate. I can but say that when my friendsexpressed their envy I was well able to understandtheir feelings and my good luck.

For the rest, this little book is not intended foranything beyond the statement on the title page.I am sorry myself that there are no adventuresof the blood-curdling sort in it; but I could notgo out of my way, nor do tramps find time, it seems,for propitiating cannibals. Of unrehearsed effectson voyages, indeed, my belief is that it is possiblesometimes to have too much. Eastward of Madagascar,we read, lies Tromelin Island–a sandbank amile long. In 1761 the Utile was wrecked there,and eighty blacks were left behind; all died exceptseven of the women, who clung to life for fifteenyears, nourished on shell fish and brackish water,8until Captain Tromelin landed and saved them.Now I cannot feel sorry that I was not one of thatparty.

There is, naturally, some slender disguise of namesand so forth through my journal. There may be,it occurs, a S.S. Bonadventure at the present day;if it is so, this is not the ship. My grateful recollectionsof Captain Hosea, his officers and crewapply to those gentlemen indeed, but they do notsign on by the names which I have for this occasioninvented. Thus their own example leads me;how much oftener was I hailed as “Skylark” and“Jonah” than as

EDMUND BLUNDEN.

London,

December 23, 1921.

Dear Blunden,–

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