Jesse Kitchener’s Loughborough Poems

Little is known about the poet Jesse Kitchener, but he wrote three poems specifically about Charnwood: ‘A Glimpse at the Scenery round Loughborough’, ‘Charnwood, at the Approach of a Storm’, and ‘Normanton Spire’. These appeared in Translations from Casimir, &c. with Poems, Odes, and Specimens of Latin Prose, by J. Kitchener (‘late of Clare Hall, Cambridge’), London, 1821.

A Glimpse at the Scenery round Loughborough* 

*Partly excogitated in June, 1819

Hills where greenest herbage grows!
Vallies where the shepherd Soar
Counts at leisure while he flows
All his fleecy treasures o’er!

Sicken’d of the show and stir
Of the world’s more public road,
House a homeless traveller
In your undisturb’d abode.

William Wordsworth in Charnwood

William Wordsworth’s poem ‘Inscription for a seat in the groves of Coleorton’ (1811) is perhaps the best poem written about the Charnwood area:

BENEATH yon eastern ridge, the craggy bound,
Rugged and high, of Charnwood’s forest ground
Stand yet, but, Stranger! hidden from thy view,
The ivied Ruins of forlorn GRACE DIEU;
Erst a religious House, which day and night
With hymns resounded, and the chanted rite:
And when those rites had ceased, the Spot gave birth
To honourable Men of various worth:

Charnwood’s Forgotten War Poet

In my last post, I looked at Loughborough’s forgotten poet and quoted one of his poems about the First World War. This post is about another Charnwood poet who wrote about the Great War – but from the perspective of someone who had actually fought in the trenches. And yet the Wikipedia page for his birthplace says nothing about him. His poetry is not widely known or read. Arthur Newberry Choyce is Charnwood’s forgotten poet of the Great War, and 2014 – the centenary of the outbreak of WWI – seems like an apposite time to bring his name, and his work, to a wider audience.

Loughborough’s Forgotten Poet

Imagine playing a game where you have to name a famous poet associated with a particular county. Nottinghamshire has its great writer in the figure of D. H. Lawrence. Dorset is forever bound up with the poetry and fiction of Thomas Hardy. But if you mention Leicestershire in such a game, it’s harder to provide an answer. When Hardy and Lawrence were busy writing about their local landscapes, what Leicestershire poet was doing the same for Charnwood? There was a poet – but his name has fallen into obscurity.

Welcome to the Charnwood Poetry Archive

The Charnwood Poetry Archive is a new online project which seeks to bring little-known works of local literature to a wider audience.

All of the poetry and poets we will focus on have a connection with the Charnwood area of Leicestershire in the UK. The poet in question may have been born in the area, or the poetry may have been written about local towns or landmarks such as Loughborough, Bradgate Park, or Charnwood Forest. Or, in some cases, both. The aim is to bring these forgotten voices and works to a new readership, in order to enhance public understanding of poetry, local Leicestershire history, and the intersection between the two.

We hope you enjoy the posts to come.

Image: Beacon Hill, © Oliver Tearle 2014.