Poetical field
Sir: Henry Newbolt for Poets' Corner? (19/26 December) — he would certainly have relished the prospect himself. But it may be fair to mention that he was surely guilty of a certain trahison des clercs in his attitude to the cult of games at public schools and the consequent ascendancy of brawn over brain. At Clifton a boy who produced an excellent or even promising essay or poem or painting might be told to take it to the headmaster, with the chance it would be awarded a 'star', such a distinction being noticed in the School Lists. What did the poet Newbolt think of such a system? In his 'School Song' he derided it.
The stars and sounding vanities That half the crowd bewitch, What are they but inanities To him that treads the pitch? And where's the wealth, I'm wondering, Could buy the cheers that roll When the last charge goes thundering Beneath the twilight goal?
His son, I believe, went to Winchester.
Martyn Skinner
Ibex House, Fitzhead, Taunton
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