66224: Tobacco

Manuscript in pen in Ivor Gurney's hand. Numerous versions of the poem exist, and a shorter version from the green manuscript exercise book 64.3 was published in 'The London Mercury' in 1924. The draft shown here was included in P.J. Kavanagh's 'Ivor Gurney: Collected Poems' (2004). From a pink mottled hard-cover exercise book. The inside front cover is inscribed 'Music to Miss C. Rogers...Poetry to Professor Saintsbury / Bath'. The inside back cover is inscribed 'Instead of a home / I require death'.