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Re: Favourite Enid Blyton Poems

Posted: 07 Mar 2016, 12:37
by Rob Houghton
What a beautiful poem, Anita! Enid wrote so many quite adult poems - it's such a shame that the only ones constantly reprinted over the years were her more simple childish rhymes. 8)

Re: Favourite Enid Blyton Poems

Posted: 27 Apr 2016, 19:19
by Rob Houghton
As I've just been reading my newly-bought £10 copy of 'Silver And Gold' (1925) I thought I'd post one of the poems I liked from the book.

It's a great example of how some things never really change - then it was 'the wireless' - nowadays it might be the TV or a computer or iphone! The idea behind this poem is still so relevant today! 8)

OUR WIRELESS

Daddy's bought a wireless set,
The very nicest he could get;
And every evening after tea
Baby-boy and Jane and me
Put receivers on our head
And listen till we go to bed.

And although I like to listen in,
Especially when the tales begin,
I wish and wish, for goodness sake!
That wireless set of ours would break;
For Mummy then would smile and say,
"I'll tell you stories, dear, today!"

She used to read to Jane and me
Such lovely stories after tea -
She'd sometimes laugh and sometimes smile,
And cuddle Baby all the while;
But now, until we go to bed,
The wireless tells us tales instead.

And oh! If you could come one day,
And take our wireless set away
I'd be as glad as glad could be,
And p'raps invite you, after tea
To hear our Mummy tell again
Her lovely tales to me and Jane.

8)

Re: Favourite Enid Blyton Poems

Posted: 27 Apr 2016, 19:57
by Anita Bensoussane
Yes, very relevant to today's society as you say, Rob! I assume the "receivers" were headphones. Wasn't it possible to listen to the wireless without them?

Re: Favourite Enid Blyton Poems

Posted: 27 Apr 2016, 22:20
by Katharine
I liked that poem too. There's one called 'Listening In', which was printed in the Leicester Advertiser. I haven't got my copy to hand, but I seem to remember that either the words, or the illustration that went with it, suggested that in the early days the wireless was listened to via headphones.

I'm not sure whether that was standard, or an extra option.

Re: Favourite Enid Blyton Poems

Posted: 27 Apr 2016, 23:17
by Rob Houghton
According to my dad (the fountain of knowledge, especially when it comes to wireless and radio and TV because he's built them all in his time, and is an electrician by trade) tells me that wireless loudspeakers were invented in the mid 20's but weren't widely used until the 1930's. 8)

Re: Favourite Enid Blyton Poems

Posted: 27 Apr 2016, 23:23
by Katharine
That's interesting.

Somewhere in my house I have an instruction manual for building a wireless set. It belonged to the lady who lived here before us, and I think it dated from the late 1920s. I never paid much attention to it, but maybe I'd better try and track it down.

Re: Favourite Enid Blyton Poems

Posted: 28 Apr 2016, 22:24
by Anita Bensoussane
Thanks for the information. It seems from the poem that at least three headphones (or "receivers") at a time could be used with the wireless.

Re: Favourite Enid Blyton Poems

Posted: 28 Apr 2016, 23:04
by Rob Houghton
Maybe it was like this... :-)

Image

Re: Favourite Enid Blyton Poems

Posted: 28 Apr 2016, 23:07
by Anita Bensoussane
A good photo, Rob. I'd been imagining something bigger.

Re: Favourite Enid Blyton Poems

Posted: 28 Apr 2016, 23:17
by Courtenay
That's very interesting — I didn't realise that early wirelesses often had headphones rather than speakers. Yes, a poem with a theme that's still all too familiar to us today! :wink: (Though one wonders why the children themselves don't take the "receivers" off their heads and ask Mother for a story, if they want one so much! No sense in blaming the wireless itself... :shock: )

I do remember one of Enid's short stories, The Golliwog and the Radio — originally published as The Golliwog and the Wireless, unsurprisingly — in which it's an essential part of the plot that the wireless/radio does have speakers and is audible to everyone, as the golliwog upsets the other toys by turning it on constantly. Until one night it proves very useful, but I won't give the plot away! :wink: (Also unsurprisingly, I see the further updated version of the story has the golly replaced with a (presumably white-skinned) toy clown. :| )

Re: Favourite Enid Blyton Poems

Posted: 29 Apr 2016, 00:20
by Rob Houghton
Anita Bensoussane wrote:A good photo, Rob. I'd been imagining something bigger.
I think there were bigger sets, of course - this was just a good example of children using multiple headphones/receivers. :-D This may have even been a glorified 'crystal radio'.
Courtenay wrote:That's very interesting — I didn't realise that early wirelesses often had headphones rather than speakers.
Definitely the earlier ones only had headphones. I know when I was little I had a crystal radio set, which you made from a kit. These were very popular in the 20's and 30's and usually they were listened to via headphones. 8)

Re: Favourite Enid Blyton Poems

Posted: 30 Sep 2016, 13:26
by Rob Houghton
Thought I would resurrect this thread! :-)

A poem from 'Silver and Gold' -

AWFULLY HUNGRY

I'm so very hungry, but I've got to wait till tea -
Nurse says its only half an hour or so.
Only half an hour, but it seems a year to me -
A year that's going just as slow as slow.

And oh! I do keep thinking of such lovely things to eat -
I wish I didn't, cos I feel so bad:
I think of roast potatoes set round a joint of meat,
And all the puddings that I've ever had.

I think of all the things there are inside the larder door -
The lovely little bits of tart and pie,
The dripping in its basin, and the bread pan on the floor.
Oh! when I think of them I want to cry.

I feel so very hungry that I'd eat up bacon rind,
I'd gobble apple cores and orange peel;
I'd almost eat an egg that's bad - I don't believe I'd mind:
You couldn't guess how awfully bad I feel.

I'll just show Nurse how wrong it is to make me wait like this:
I'll eat up all the bread she cuts for tea,
And all the cake and all the jam, and every-thing there is -
I'll just show Nurse how hungry I can be!

Re: Favourite Enid Blyton Poems

Posted: 30 Sep 2016, 17:10
by John Pickup
I like that poem. Dripping in its basin, I used to love that on bread liberally sprinkled with salt!

Re: Favourite Enid Blyton Poems

Posted: 04 Oct 2016, 15:47
by Kate Mary
I was in Town yesterday, it was a beautiful day and walking down Buckingham Palace Road a vague memory of this poem was in my mind:

Oh London I'm in love with you
On this October morning,
You've chosen such a lovely blue
And gold for your adorning.
You've polished up the street and down
And set the roadway gleaming,
Until you are a fairy town,
Half waking and half dreaming,
And when for fog and mist and rain
Your weather I am scorning,
I'll love you when I think again
Of this October morning!

Another gem from the Cave. Written on 18/9/1925 and published in The Morning Post 7th October 1925.

Re: Favourite Enid Blyton Poems

Posted: 03 Apr 2017, 23:21
by Rob Houghton
Thought I'd resurrect this thread! I bought a Sunny Stories calendar a few months ago, and I'm currently displaying it in a frame, turning it as the months change. It's 1944 and actually, by coincidence, the dates and days match up!

The poem for April is one I really enjoyed -

Gold and Blue

Gold and blue for April days,
Primroses in woodland ways,
Speedwell with her brilliant eye,
Blue as any April sky;
Gold of polished celandine,
Daffodils in dancing line,
Steely-blue the swallow's wing,
Ah, no wonder blackbirds sing,
Opening wide a golden beak
Ever-sweeter songs to seek,
Fluting down the woodland ways,
Gold and blue for April days.

8)