Well, here’s a perfectly timed Pride discovery.
A student in the UK has uncovered a lost love poem by celebrated British poet Siegfried Sassoon, written to his boyfriend Glen Byam Shaw.
Julian Richards discovered the poem while researching Sassoon at Cambridge University. The poem itself consists of eight lines, written in 1925 about a night together with Shaw and how much Sassoon missed him. Richards says the poem was written when Sassoon was 39 and Shaw 20, while Shaw pursued a career in theatre. He would go on to become one of the most treasured British thespians of the 20th century, acting on stage to wide acclaim and directing friends like John Gielgud, Albert Finney & Charles Laughton to great success.
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Upon Richards’ discovery of the poem, The Guardian published it for the first time. It reads:
A day after their first dinner together,
Sassoon was already full of yearning for his young lover:
‘Though you have left me, I’m not yet alone:
For what you were befriends the firelit room …
Sassoon biographer Jean Moorcroft Wilson claims the poem has remained totally unknown up until now. “What is important is that it’s written at a time when Sassoon believed that poetry had forsaken him,” Wilson says of the discovery. “He finds it very difficult to write poetry in the 1920s. He’s been so successful as a war poet that he doesn’t really quite know where his poetry lies. He’s sort of grasping for a subject.”
Sassoon penned the poem at a time when homosexuality remained illegal in the UK.
PoetDaddy
So the article says the newly discovered poem is eight lines long, yet only four lines appear here. What happened?
pdxdude_69
The untitled poem
Though you have left me, I’m not yet alone:
For what you were befriends the firelit room;
And what you said remains & is my own
To make a living gladness of my gloom
The firelight leaps & shows your empty chair
And all our harmonies of speech are stilled:
But you are with me in the voiceless air
My hands are empty, but my heart is filled.
Copyright Siegfried Sassoon by kind permission of the Estate of George Sassoon
bobfarock156
I believe it is only two lines, so where are the missing six lines!
marcelony
Got alreaddy censor. Was too gay for this site 😉
petted
The article in the Guardian shows the poem in full. There are oftentimes restrictions placed on publications of creative works by the estates of writers so it’s likely that the poem was not presented in it’s full form to avoid any disputes and so that the article could be posted sooner.
Jackrabbit
39 year old man picking up a 20 year old man……. nothing ever changes…… sigh.
Juanjo
Really? That is what you are going to whine about?
TommyIL
Why the sigh? A 20 year old is an adult…
russellhm
The lines are written in pencil and in line 2, “For what you were” is underlined and in line 3 “And what you said” is also underlined. The date is underlined with a flourish. And there is red ink stamp of the Library of Cambridge University in the center, lower right. In a cataloguer’s pencil are numbers that may indicate manuscript: Add.9454/11.
Though you have left me I’m not yet alone;
For what you were befriends the firelit room;
And what you said remains & is my own
To make a living gladness of my gloom.
The firelight leaps & shows your empty chair
And all our harmonies of speech are stilled!
But you are with me in this voiceless air;
My hands are empty but my heart is filled.
24.10.25
Glen Byam Shaw became a noted actor and director, had an affair with the famed actress Rachel Kempson, who married Sir Michael Redgrave and became the matriarch of the famed acting family including her children Vanessa, Corin, and Lynn. But Shaw married Angela Baddeley in 1929 until her death in 1976. American audiences know her as Mrs. Bridges, the cook, in the series “Upstairs, Downstairs.” She was also in the 1963 film, “Tom Jones.” Shaw, who was born the same year as Baddeley–1904–died in 1986–in Goring-on-Thames, a lovely area where I spent several weeks in a charming cottage that had been a mill. The wheel still functioned and lulled me to sleep at night. And walking along the banks of the placid river, one reaches the home of Kenneth Grahame, the author of my favorite childhood book, “Wind in the Willows.” I searched for Mr. Toad and Badger, et al.
love tennis
The 25.10.25 is most likely the date he wrote the poem. In most countries, the date is placed first, then the month and year. Too bad the story doesn’t mention if the guy who found the poem is gay too.
Virpilosus
Dear Russell…thanks for your comments, your anecdotes, but especially for reprinting the entirety of Sassoon’s absolutely beautiful poem, seemingly written in the “afterglow” of a meeting with his lover. The poem is so lyrical, “melodic,” and soothing…it calmed me as I read it, and I even indulged myself in thinking about the special man in my life…now as I grow distinctly older. Love…loss…and love, these make up so much of life. Poetry such as Sassoon’s help me to balance it all, and with some serenity!
Kangol2
@russellhm, thanks for posting the full poem. (Thanks, @pdxdude_69, for doing so as well). It’s beautiful and quite moving. Given the lack of gendered pronouns he might have gotten away with publishing it in the 1920s, though as the article notes, it was a fraught time for gay men in the UK, including famous, upper-class authors like him. Anyways, thanks also for sharing the information about Shaw and Baddeley, and your story about visiting Goring-on-Thames.
Bryguyf69
Love tennis: “Too bad the story doesn’t mention if the guy who found the poem is gay too.”
I’m not sure why that would matter, as Julian Richards’ PhD thesis is exclusively on Shaw, not homosexuality, history nor Sassoon. While there were vague rumors of Shaw’s bisexuality, as there were for many men in the theatre, it’s unlikely that Richards’ interest in Shaw had anything to do with it. That said, one of his minor goals in looking through the correspondence was to confirm Shaw’s bisexuality, and see if it had any effect on his directorial decisions.
BiggieB
Bryguyf69, the article states that he was researching Sassoon, not Shaw. Do you know something we don’t?
PrinceofPrussia
russellhm, thank you for sharing. It’s a lovely poem.
james7
Russell: thanks for this extensive footnote, how lovely to think that an expression of love can last long after the lovers are gone.
Doug
Beautiful poem.
Esscourt
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I’m 39 and you’re 20,
But I still love you.
glennmcbride
34 years ago I met my partner. He was 20 and I was 35 and we are still together. Age was never an obstacle for us.
russellhm
In reply to all the lovely thank-yous for my post, I must add a bit of information my searching found. Shaw, as I mentioned, may have struggled over his sexuality, decided the legal ramifications were too threatening to his career, or simply was not truly gay. But he performed with and/or directed some of the greatest names in British theatre: Directed Lawrence Olivier and his wife at the time, Vivian Leigh, in Macbeth, King Lear with Charles Laughton and Albert Finney, Dame Edith Evans, Emlyn Williams, Peggy Ashcroft and to my mind for our continuing benefit, he roused the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford from decades of inept performances and uncaring staff in the early 50s. But he and Sassoon remained friends until Sassoon’s death; they lived fairly close to one another. And Sassoon’s War Poetry is superb, not quite as well-known as Wilfred Owens or even Rupert Brooke, but memorable. Sassoon stopped writing poetry early on. Sad.
Bryguyf69
“Shaw, as I mentioned, may have … [been] not truly gay.”
Agreed. The poem merely reflected Sasson’s feelings for Shaw, but offers no insight on Shaw’s feelings for Sassoon. It could have been purely platonic, or sexual but unrequited, as the 20 year old Shaw sought to launch a career in theatre. The poem itself is passionate but not exactly sexual, and in many ways reflect the florid style many European men used at the time, regardless of sexual orientation. I’ve done research on the History of Science and Mathematics, and even these men of logic often filled their correspondence with phrases like, “I forever remain your most humble servant…”
While I am straight, I certainly have felt the longing expressed in the poem for male friends, including a gay man. And ironically, when I was 20, I received a 3 page letter from a gay friend expressing the same. I still have it, and blushed the last time I read it. But it was all platonic. We simply enjoyed each other’s company, and shared conversations long into the night. This is especially true in the Ivy League, where real men talk about more than sports and sex. When one moved away for grad school, or went home for the Summer, we felt incomplete. We, of course, had the benefits of daily email. But Sassoon didn’t, hence the intensity of the poem.
On a related note, gay black journalist Don Lemon recently sobbed on the air, eulogizing a straight white friend from college (will upload). And when marriage equality passed in America, straight journalist Steve Hartman paid tribute to his best friend, who is gay. In fact, Hartman was his Best Man. Yes, such intense Platonic love can exist!
That said, one of Julian Richards’ goals in looking through the correspondence was to confirm Shaw’s rumored bisexuality, and see if it had any effect on his directorial decisions. As far as I can tell, there is no confirmatory evidence that the married Shaw was gay or even bisexual. Many men of the theatre were rumored to be gay, but some straight actors were merely using sex to further their careers.
djmcgamester
Really sweet. It’s so amazing when new evidence is discovered to say “Yes, we were there”. Not the first nor the last but it all amounts to a big ole pile to shove at those who think we’re a fetish or influenced by social media.
36glebe
@ Kangol2 Given the lack of gendered pronouns he might have gotten away with publishing it in the 1920s,
The way things are going these days he would have been able to post it quite easily without offending anyone other than himself.