1 50 Gore Rd
2 Victoria Park
3 Saturday
4
5 Dear Edward Carpenter
6
7 I send your St. Augustine. It has been sweet to me to think you rested
8even for one night. The face with its short beard lying right up
9against his shoulder. When he goes & you are alone again & that
10terrible sinking comes write & tell me please ^unreadable^. When he goes
11away from you he always has to go back to someone else & then the
12terrible ^sinking^ as if all the blood was going out of your body. Is it
13really getting better? There is such a stick under stick under my
14heart when I think of it all.
15
16 Are you working? Is that red book in the pocket getting fuller?
17Remember you must live for that. There lies before you a fuller richer
18period of work than any you have yet known. Sometimes I think it would
19be best for you to go away to America & see Whitman & folks there for
20a bit. Then I feel that if it is possible it is best for you to stay
21just where you are, & harden. It will come right at last, at last. I
22wish I knew all. You must be gentle to her, because its hard for her
23too; & she hasn’t the larger things to fall back on that you have.
24
25 //I didn’t know that you & he ever came quite close to each other
26still; I thought your life was all quite empty. I understand now,
27better. I am thinking of you in the morning, & at evening & at night.
28You are not many moments out of my thoughts. unreadable
29
30 Please remember me to George. No one knows I have returned to Town so
31I’m having a good quiet time for work & my cough is better than
32it’s been for many months.
33
34 //Did you see what old Whitman said when they showed ^told^ him ^about^
35Swinburne’s article? "I thought Mr Swinburne liked my poetry"; -
36nothing else! I don’t think it would be good for you to come to
37London. Either stay just were you are or go right away to America.
38unreadable Work will help you; nothing but work.
39
40 Good bye, your comrade
41 Olive
42
43 I wasn’t angry when ^you^ went away! Sometimes a great flood of
44feeling was in me & I must either laugh or get away, or I have to give
45way to it. It’s myself I’m angry with you know eh?
46
47 ^My little unreadable had bought me a pepper pot & a mustard pot for
48two pence. This letter doesn’t want an answer please. I’m not
49going to let any one know I’m in town, & I’m going to work so
50splendidly here in my little room. Good bye brother. Don’t write,
51except just a card when you want to unreadable^
52
53 1
54 Far away, where the tempests play,
55 Over the dreary seas,
56 Sail or still, with a strong ^steady^ will,
57 On-ward before the breeze.
58
59 2
60 On, onwards yet,
61 Till our hearts forget
62 The loves that we leave behind:
63 Till the memories ?clear
64 that thrill in our ear
65 Flow past like the whistling wind.
66
67 3
68 Let them come, sweet
69 thoughts of home,
70 And voices we loved of old;
71 What care we that sail a sea,
72 And bound for a Land of Gold?
73
74 4
75 Treasures there are that are lovelier far,
76 Than the flash of a maiden’s eye;
77 Jewels bright as the purple light,
78 That crimsons the evening sky;
79 Crowns that gleam
80 like a fairy dream,
81 Th Treasure of price untold!
82 And we, are bound for
83 that charmed ground;
84 We, sail for a land
85 of Gold!
86
87 I fear it’s too irregular to be put to any music. I don’t know who
88it’s by & I’m not sure whether I’ve not intro ^duced some
89variations!!^ I found it in a book when I was a little child unreadable.
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