Robert Graves, Poet - exhibition starting 1 April at Special Collections, University of Otago

‘Forging a Magical Landscape: The Works of Robert Graves, Poet’

On the headstone that marks his grave at Deyá, Marjorca, there is the simple: ‘Robert Graves Poeta 1895-1985’.
And it was this aspect that attracted Charles Brasch, editor, patron and poet, to the works of Graves, calling him ‘among the finest English poets of our time, one of the few who is likely to be remembered as a poet.’
Indeed, not only did Brasch collect his own first editions volumes written by Graves, but he encouraged the University of Otago Library to buy more. Thanks to Brasch, Special Collections at the University of Otago now has an extensive collection of works (poetry, novels, essays, children’s books) by him.

Born at Wimbledon in 1895, Graves had an Irish father, a German mother, an English upbringing, and a classical education. Enlisting in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, Graves faced the horrors of World War I. He was wounded by shrapnel, left for dead and later able to read his own obituary in the London Times.

In 1929, he penned Goodbye To All That, his war-time autobiography which gave him success and fame. And aside from his regular output of poetry books, he wrote historical novels such as I Claudius (1934) and Claudius the God (1934), The White Goddess (1948), the heady study on matriarchal worship and poetry that in the sixties became a source book for readers of the Whole Earth Catalog, and the very successful The Greek Myths (1955). By 1975, effectively the end of his writing career, he had written a total of some 135 books, including The Golden Fleece (1944), Seven Days in New Crete (1949), his critical The Crowning Privilege (1956) and Oxford Addresses on Poetry (1964), and Collected Poems of 1975.
 If nothing else is claimed for him, this unkempt (thick curly hair, broken nose, an irregular face), honest, independent, sometimes truculent, unorthodox romantic wrote for a living and to support himself as a poet.

The exhibition ‘Forging a Magical Landscape: The Works of Robert Graves, Poet’ is based on the holdings in Special Collections. First and second editions, signed limited publications, reprints, illustrative editions – all reveal the scope and range of topics that Graves covered as well as his sheer industry. One moves from the trenches, Roman bath-houses and the American War of Independence, to life with John Milton, Jesus, and the poisoner Dr William Palmer. Translations, contributions to the work of others, and children’s books feature as too do early influences and friends such as Edward Marsh, Siegfried Sassoon, and T. E. Lawrence.
And then there is the all-important poetry, at first about the war, then to the three loves of his life: Nancy Nicholson, Laura Riding, and Beryl Pritchard, and finally fuelled by his devotion to the Muse – or Muses. The works of (and critical analysis by) Laura Riding, the American poet, and his collaborator for 13 years, are important here.

The exhibition runs from 1 April to 17 June 2011 in the de Beer Gallery, 1st floor, Central University Library. Hours are 8.30 am to 5.00 pm, Monday to Friday.

For any further enquiries, please contact Dr Donald Kerr, Special Collections Librarian, University of Otago. Phone: (03) 479-8330; email: donald.kerr@otago.ac.nz


There is no now for us but always,

Nor any I but we –
Who have loved only and love only
From the hilltops to the sea
In our long turbulence of nights and days:
A calendar from which no lover strays
In proud perversity.

Envoi. (Collected Poems, 1975)