Lytton Strachey at Tidmarsh

This is what I've been reading for several weeks, in the evenings after I've crawled into bed. The British biographer Lytton Strachey was a bit of a character and formed an unusual domestic partnership with a woman (painter Dora Carrington; see the film Carrington) who loved him, and the man he loved, who loved her. Or something like that. There were enough love affairs to confuse anyone. But hey: whatever works, more power to ya.

A friend of mine celebrated his birthday the other day and I thought the following poem suited his lifestyle, as well as my own. Except that he and I have no interest in fame, and we are both well past 40:

Tidmarsh

Suppose the kind gods said, ‘Today

You’re forty. True: But still rejoice!

Gifts we have got will smooth away

The ills of age. Come, take your choice!

What should I answer? Well, you know

I’m modest — very. So no shower

Of endless gold I’d beg, nor show

Of proud-faced pomp, nor regal power.

No; ordinary things and good

I’d choose: friends, wise and kind and few;

A country house, a pretty wood

To walk in; books both old and new

To read; a life retired, apart,

Where leisure and repose might dwell

With industry; a little art;

Perhaps a little fame as well.

(Lytton Strachey, 1 March 1920)