Frances Cornford
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Frances Crofts Cornford (née Darwin; 30 March 1886 – 19 August 1960) was an English poet.


Life

She was the daughter of the
botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...
Francis Darwin Sir Francis "Frank" Darwin (16 August 1848 – 19 September 1925) was a British botanist. He was the third son of the naturalist and scientist Charles Darwin. Biography Francis Darwin was born in Down House, Downe, Kent in 1848. He was the ...
and
Newnham College Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicent ...
fellow Ellen Wordsworth Crofts (1856-1903), and born into the Darwin—Wedgwood family. She was a granddaughter of the
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
naturalist
Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...
. Her older half-brother was the golf writer
Bernard Darwin Bernard Richard Meirion Darwin CBE JP (7 September 1876 − 18 October 1961) a grandson of the British naturalist Charles Darwin, was a golf writer and high-standard amateur golfer. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Biography ...
. She was brought up in Cambridge, among a dense social network of aunts, uncles, and cousins, and was educated privately. Because of the similarity of her first name, her father's and her husband's, she was known to her family before her marriage as "FCD" and after her marriage as "FCC" and her husband
Francis Cornford Francis Macdonald Cornford (27 February 1874 – 3 January 1943) was an English classical scholar and translator known for work on ancient philosophy, notably Plato, Parmenides, Thucydides, and ancient Greek religion. Frances Cornford, his w ...
was known as "FMC". Her father Sir
Francis Darwin Sir Francis "Frank" Darwin (16 August 1848 – 19 September 1925) was a British botanist. He was the third son of the naturalist and scientist Charles Darwin. Biography Francis Darwin was born in Down House, Downe, Kent in 1848. He was the ...
, a son of
Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...
, yet another 'Francis', was known to their family as "Frank", or as "Uncle Frank". In 1909, Frances Darwin married
Francis Cornford Francis Macdonald Cornford (27 February 1874 – 3 January 1943) was an English classical scholar and translator known for work on ancient philosophy, notably Plato, Parmenides, Thucydides, and ancient Greek religion. Frances Cornford, his w ...
, a classicist and poet. They had five children: * Helena Cornford (1913–1996); married Joseph L. Henderson in 1934 *
John Cornford Rupert John Cornford (27 December 1915 – 28 December 1936) was an English poet and communist. During the first year of the Spanish Civil War, he was a member of the POUM militia and later the International Brigades. He died while fighting a ...
(1915–1936), a poet and Communist who was killed in the Spanish Civil War * Christopher Cornford (1917–1993), an artist and writer * Hugh Wordsworth Cornford (1921–1997), medical doctor * Ruth Clare (1924–1992); married Cecil Hall Chapman, the son of Sydney Chapman in 1947. She is buried at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge,
Mark Goldie Mark Goldie is an English historian and Professor of Intellectual History at Churchill College, Cambridge. He has written on the English political theorist John Locke and is a member of the Early Modern History and Political Thought and Intellec ...
, ''A Guide to Churchill College, Cambridge'', pp. 62 and 63 (2009).
where she is in the same grave as her father
Sir Francis Darwin Sir Francis "Frank" Darwin (16 August 1848 – 19 September 1925) was a British botanist. He was the third son of the naturalist and scientist Charles Darwin. Biography Francis Darwin was born in Down House, Downe, Kent in 1848. He was th ...
. Her mother
Ellen Wordsworth Darwin Ellen Wordsworth Darwin (née Crofts; 13 January 1856 – 28 August 1903) was an academic, a fellow and lecturer in English Literature at Newnham College in Cambridge (1879-1883), a member of the private and scholarly Ladies Dining Society ...
, née Crofts, is buried in St. Andrews Church's churchyard in Girton,
Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...
.


Works

Frances Cornford published several books of verse, including her debut (as "F.C.D"), ''The Holtbury Idyll'' (1908), ''Poems'' (1910), ''Spring Morning'' (1915), ''Autumn Midnight'' (1923), and ''Different Days'' (1928). ''Mountains and Molehills'' (1935) was illustrated with woodcuts by her cousin
Gwen Raverat Gwendolen Mary "Gwen" Raverat (née Darwin; 26 August 1885 – 11 February 1957), was an English wood engraver who was a founder member of the Society of Wood Engravers. Her memoir '' Period Piece'' was published in 1952. Biography Gwendolen ...
. She wrote poems including "The Guitarist Tunes Up":
With what attentive courtesy he bent Over his instrument; Not as a lordly conqueror who could Command both wire and wood, But as a man with a loved woman might Inquiring with delight What slight essential things she had to say Before they started, he and she, to play.
One of Frances Cornford's poems was a favourite of
Philip Larkin Philip Arthur Larkin (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985) was an English poet, novelist, and librarian. His first book of poetry, ''The North Ship'', was published in 1945, followed by two novels, ''Jill'' (1946) and ''A Girl in Winter'' (1947 ...
and his lover Maeve Brennan. "All Souls' Night" uses the superstition that a dead lover will appear to a still faithful partner on that November date. Maeve, many years after Larkin's death, would re-read the poem on All Souls:
My love came back to me Under the November tree Shelterless and dim. He put his hand upon my shoulder, He did not think me strange or older, Nor I him.
Although the myth enhances the poem - it can be read as the meeting of older, former lovers. To a Fat Lady Seen from the Train However, Cornford is possibly best remembered for her
triolet A triolet (, ) is almost always a stanza poem of eight lines, though stanzas with as few as seven lines and as many as nine or more have appeared in its history. Its rhyme scheme is ABaAabAB (capital letters represent lines repeated verbatim) and ...
poem "To a Fat Lady Seen from the Train" in ''Poems'' of 1910.
O why do you walk through the fields in gloves, Missing so much and so much? O fat white woman whom nobody loves, Why do you walk through the fields in gloves, When the grass is soft as the breast of doves And shivering-sweet to the touch? O why do you walk through the fields in gloves, Missing so much and so much?
To which G. K. Chesterton replied in "The Fat Lady Answers" in his ''Collected Poems'' of 1927:
Why do you rush through the field in trains, Guessing so much and so much. Why do you flash through the flowery meads, Fat-head poet that nobody reads; And why do you know such a frightful lot About people in gloves as such? ...
Earlier, in 1910,
A. E. Housman Alfred Edward Housman (; 26 March 1859 – 30 April 1936) was an English classical scholar and poet. After an initially poor performance while at university, he took employment as a clerk in London and established his academic reputation by pub ...
had written a parody in a private letter:
O why do you walk through the fields in boots, Missing so much and so much? O fat white woman whom nobody shoots, Why do you walk through the fields in boots, When the grass is soft as the breast of coots ...
The first lines of this poem were spoken by a character in
Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictiona ...
's 1939 novel '' Murder is Easy''.


See also

*
Conduit Head Conduit Head is a 1910 house located off the Madingley Road ( A1303) on the western outskirts of Cambridge, England. Built in 1910, it was designed by Harry Redfern for Francis Darwin, and was built for Darwin's daughter Frances on the occasion ...


Notes


External links

* * *
Encyclopædia Britannica
* * Archival Material at {{DEFAULTSORT:Cornford, Frances 1886 births 1960 deaths Darwin–Wedgwood family English women poets Burials in Cambridgeshire 20th-century English poets 20th-century English women writers