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Poems by Isaac Rosenberg

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POEMS BY ISAAC ROSENBERG<br />

To Gordon Bottomley [Postmark, February ^(i,<br />

1918).<br />

" I wanted to send some bits I wrote for the<br />

'Unicorn 1 while I was in hospital, and if I find<br />

them 111 enclose them. I tried to work on your<br />

suggestion and divided it into four acts,<br />

but since<br />

I left the hospital all the poetry has gone quite<br />

out of me. I seem even to forget words, and I<br />

believe if I met anybody with ideas I'd be dumb.<br />

No drug could be more stupefying than our work<br />

(to me anyway), and this goes on like that old<br />

torture of water trickling, drop <strong>by</strong> drop unendingly,<br />

on one's helplessness. 11<br />

To Gordon Bottomley {Dated, March 7, 1918).<br />

" I believe our interlude is nearly over, and we<br />

may go up the line any moment now, so I answer<br />

your letter straightaway. If only this war were<br />

over our eyes would not be on death so much : it<br />

seems to underlie even our underthoughts. Yet<br />

when I have been so near to it as anybody could<br />

be, the idea has never crossed my mind, certainly<br />

not so much as when some lying doctor told me I<br />

had consumption. I like to think of myself as a<br />

poet ; so what you say, though I know it to be<br />

extravagant, gives me immense pleasure. 11<br />

48

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