Portrait of the Day: William Henry Davies
Past event archive
3 February 2013, 12:00
Room 29
Free
- Gallery Talk
With Mary Jennings
William Henry Davies is perhaps best known for the first two lines of his 1911 ode to the British countryside 'Leisure' - 'What is this life of full of care, we have no time to stand and stare." However, today's Portrait of the Day talk will explore his life before Leisure; the life of a 'Super tramp' as he so accurately named himself ,on the road in America surrounded by a company of colourful characters and adventurers. It was not till after a tragic accident that forced his to return to England that Davies began his career as a poet, becoming much revered by his Avant Garde society contemporaries and Literary Critics of the time, touched by his beautifully simplistic use of language, evoking the true meaning of life’s forgotten pleasures.
William Henry Davies
by Sir Jacob Epstein
1916
NPG 3885
William Henry Davies is perhaps best known for the first two lines of his 1911 ode to the British countryside 'Leisure' - 'What is this life of full of care, we have no time to stand and stare." However, today's Portrait of the Day talk will explore his life before Leisure; the life of a 'Super tramp' as he so accurately named himself ,on the road in America surrounded by a company of colourful characters and adventurers. It was not till after a tragic accident that forced his to return to England that Davies began his career as a poet, becoming much revered by his Avant Garde society contemporaries and Literary Critics of the time, touched by his beautifully simplistic use of language, evoking the true meaning of life’s forgotten pleasures.
