It bangs one about until one is senseless
It bangs one about until one is senseless
On 6th February 1952, 15 years after taking to the throne following his brother’s abdication, King George VI died in his sleep following a long illness. He was immediately succeeded by his 27-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, who reigned for 70 years until her death in 2022. Soon after the King died, his grieving widow, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, was sent a soothing anthology by British poet Edith Sitwell. This letter was her response.
15 September 1952
My dear Miss Sitwell,
It was so very kind of you to send me a copy of your lovely book
. It is giving me the greatest pleasure, and I took it out with me, and I started to read it, sitting by the river, & it was a day when one felt engulfed by great black clouds of unhappiness & misery, and I found a sort of peace stealing round my heart as I read such lovely poems & heavenly words.I found a hope in George Herbert’s poem
, “Who could have thought my shrivel’d heart, could have recovered greennesse? It was gone quite underground.’ And I thought how small and selfish is sorrow. But it bangs one about until one is senseless and I can never thank you enough for giving me such a delicious book wherein I found so much beauty & hope — quite suddenly one day by the river.It is such an entrancing collection of beautiful & unusual things, & must have taken a lot of digging & delving to find so much variety. I am deeply touched by your thought of me, I love being given books, and I send you my warmest thanks.
I am, yours very sincerely,
Elizabeth R
A Book of Flowers, edited by Edith Sitwell
The Flower, by George Herbert