Charles Causley: Cornwall's Nature Poet; Launceston; Cornwall

BBC iPlayer, 18 days left

Tremendous poetry and songs, especially the duet "Who?" from the album "Cyprus Well", a beautiful interpretation by Jim Causley and Julie Murphy (track 10 on  the album, on Spotify).

"Who is that child I see wandering, wandering/ Down by the side of the quivering stream?" (listen from 13.00 minute point). 

Who?

Who is that child I see wandering, wandering
down by the side of the quivering stream?
Why does he seem not to hear, though I call to him?
Where does he come from, and what is his name?

Why do I see him at sunrise and sunset
taking, in old-fashioned clothes, the same track?
Why, when he walks, does he cast not a shadow
though the sun rises and falls at his back?

Why does the dust lie so thick on the hedgerow
by the great field where a horse pulls the plough?
Why do I see only meadows, where houses
stand in a line by the riverside now?

Why does he move like a wraith by the water,
soft as the thistledown on the breeze blown?
When I draw near him so that I may hear him,
why does he say that his name is my own?"


Charles Causley, from The Collected Poems for Children (Macmillan, 1996)


BBC Film Description:

"Charles Causley was one of the great poets of his generation. Born in 1917 in Launceston, north Cornwall, on the edge of Bodmin Moor, the only time he left was for active service in the Royal Navy during the Second World War. His father died when he was a boy as a result of a gas attack in the trenches of World War One and he lived the rest of his life in the same house as his mother. He knew everyone and they knew him. He devoted his life to teaching, poetry and his mum. Charles Causley said that everything you needed to know about him was in the poetry. He wrote directly from experience about the people of Launceston and the changes in the town, both world wars, his shipmates, local history, myths, animals and God".


See also: Charles Causley, Celebrating Spring in North Cornwall


Cornwall Trip: Last Stop Launceston


Charles Causley reads Eden Rock


More readings


Jim Causley sings Charles Causley's Who

Jim Causley sings Charles Causley


Timothy Winters


Boilerhouse Crew