Nature Book Reader June 2020 - Flipbook - Page 157
all / That can no longer feel.
/ But the carp is in its depth
like / Like a planet in its
heaven./ And the badger in
its bedding / Like a loaf in
the oven. / And the butterfly
in its mummy / Like a viol
in its case. / And the owl in
its feathers / Like a doll in
its lace.
Of the three kings of
country writing that strode
through the wider woods
and heaths of the late 19th
and early 20th centuries
– Richard Jefferies, W.H.
Hudson and Edward
Thomas – I think Thomas
was the most gifted writer;
but I think Jefferies produced
the most memorable book.
The Story if my Heart, first
published in 1883, was
originally described as an
autobiography, but it is unlike
any other life story. It begins
with a description of the
author’s dissatisfaction with
the world. He appreciated the
beauty of land and sea, and he
understood how the natural
world was meshed together,
but he wanted more, a more
intense and a more fulfilling
relationship with nature and
humanity. In writing that is
often sublime, but sometimes
a little over eloquent for
our times, Jefferies charts
the course of his yearnings,
hoping for the moment of
illumination that will bring
him home – a spiritual as well
as natural home, but free from
any idea of gods or deities.
Imagine how Richard
Jefferies would have
responded to much of the
English landscape today.
Read him and weep!
Further Reading
The Living Landscape
by Fraser Harrison
Season Songs
by Ted Hughes
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