I was looking for a poem called The Sundurers by D H Lawrence. However, I don’t think it exists.
I have found a painting called The Sunderers, with a reference from a poem called Walk Warily, by D H Lawrence, which is presumably the connection.
The full-page illustration accompanies the poem Walk Warily, and includes the following lines:
“Walk warily, walk warily, be careful what you say:
because now the Sunderers are hovering round,
the Dividers are close upon us, dogging our every breath
and watching our every step,
and beating their great wings in our panting faces.
The angels are standing back, the angels of the Kiss.
They wait, they give way now
to the Sunderers, to the swift ones
the ones with the sharp black wings…
…Lo, we are in the midst of the sunderers”.
I don’t know which lines were Miss Mawer’s favourites, but she used the poem in 1950 when the Ginner-Mawer company performed a varied programme of ballet, mime and plays at the Civic Playhouse in Cheltenham.
The newspaper review describes the ‘grim theme’ of The Sunderers which was arranged by Irene Mawer. The reviewer called the performance an unusual experiment in sound and movement.
There are some familiar names among the cast: Peggy Carey, Shirley Grimshaw, Madeline Brown, Diana Birmingham, Doreen Main, Rita Woolridge (presumably Wooldridge), Maureen King, Rosemary Doreen, Keith Brinney (presumably Bunney), Gloria Teale and Elizabeth Knight. Pianists were Joan Trowle and Harold Chipp.
(Gloucestershire Echo, 15 December 1950)
collections.enquiries@uea.ac.uk
This is the link to the Sainsbury’s art collection, which houses the illustration.
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