Dear Bryan Wynter

By W. S. Graham
1
 
This is only a note
To say how sorry I am
You died. You will realize
What a position it puts
Me in. I couldn’t really
Have died for you if so
I were inclined. The carn
Foxglove here on the wall
Outside your first house
Leans with me standing
In the Zennor wind.
 
Anyhow how are things?
Are you still somewhere
With your long legs
And twitching smile under
Your blue hat walking
Across a place? Or am
I greedy to make you up
Again out of memory?
Are you there at all?
I would like to think
You were all right
And not worried about
Monica and the children
And not unhappy or bored.
 

2
 
Speaking to you and not
Knowing if you are there
Is not too difficult.
My words are used to that.
Do you want anything?
Where shall I send something?
Rice-wine, meanders, paintings
By your contemporaries?
Or shall I send a kind
Of news of no time
Leaning against the wall
Outside your old house.
 
The house and the whole moor
Is flying in the mist.
 

3
 
I am up. I’ve washed
The front of my face
And here I stand looking
Out over the top
Half of my bedroom window.
There almost as far
As I can see I see
St Buryan’s church tower.
An inch to the left, behind
That dark rise of woods,
Is where you used to lurk.
 

4
 
This is only a note
To say I am aware
You are not here. I find
It difficult to go
Beside Housman’s star
Lit fences without you.
And nobody will laugh
At my jokes like you.
 

5
 
Bryan, I would be obliged
If you would scout things out
For me. Although I am not
Just ready to start out.
I am trying to be better,
Which will make you smile
Under your blue hat.
 
I know I make a symbol
Of the foxglove on the wall.
It is because it knows you.

Copyright Credit: W. S. Graham, “Dear Bryan Wynter” from Selected Poems. Copyright © 1980 by W. S. Graham. Reprinted by permission of The Estate of W.S. Graham.
Source: Selected Poems (Ecco Press, 1980)

  1. In opening with “This is only a note,” Graham’s poem joins the tradition of other note-poems such as William Carlos Williams’s “This Is Just To Say.” Such poems seem to dismiss themselves as poetry. Try writing a poem that begins in a similar way—by claiming not to be a poem at all. Think about how language choices can reinforce the sense of poem-as-note.
  2. Graham’s poem includes common epistolary phrases and addresses. In fact, Graham built the poem out of letters he wrote to friends and Bryan Wynter’s widow. Try extracting phrases from your own letters, emails, or notes. Both arrange the found language and add lines that connect or buffer it. How might you “build” a poem rather than “write” one? For more epistolary writing techniques see “Learning the Epistolary Poem.”
  3. Bryan Wynter was a painter as well as Graham’s close friend. As well as an elegy to him, Graham’s poem elegizes Wynter’s painting. Try writing a poem to an artist who has died about their art. Like Graham, use direct address.

  1. Graham’s poem is both concerned and not concerned with whether it will reach Bryan Wynter because as Graham notes “my words are used to that.” How else does the poem suggest that writing a poem and communicating with the dead are similar? Try thinking about this poem in relation to other elegies primarily concerned with the dead as absent and present such as Thomas Hardy’s “The Shadow on the Stone.”
  2. How does the line as a unit of sense (or non-sense) work in this poem? When do lines feel complete and when do they stop short? What is the effect of alternating enjambments this way? Were you surprised by certain lines?
  3. Because the poem is written in sections, think about the effect of breaking the poem up even further than just lines. What does each section do? How do they relate or not relate to one another? What is the effect of reading an elegy in parts?

  1. “To Bryan Wynter” is a good example of a modern epistle. Discuss with your students what makes this poem feel like a letter and what makes it seem like a poem. Where do they see letters and poems as similar? Different? Perhaps in preparation for the writing idea above, break students into groups and assign each group a section of the article “Learning the Epistolary Poem.” Have them prepare a few notes to present the historical period or set of poems treated in their section. And ask them to try out the writing prompt as well. Then, have them present both the ideas from their section as well as the prompt (for the class to try), or have them read the poem the prompt generated for them. After, have your students come up with their own series of prompts that draw on epistolary techniques.
  2. Try using Graham’s poem to open a discussion about poetic language and diction. First ask students to rate Graham’s poem in level of difficulty: is it hard? Easy? Medium? Have students think about word choices, references or allusions, line breaks, syntax, repetition, and sound patterning as well as meaning. Generate a list of all the elements of Graham’s poem and then have students rate those elements as well. Lead a discussion about what’s difficult or easy about this poem, and how that ease or difficulty affects them as readers. Then distribute other examples of Graham’s work (his style changed significantly over the course of his career). Give some students examples of his early work such as “At Whose Sheltering Shall the Day Sea” or “Listen. Put on Morning.” Give yet other groups later Graham poems like “To Alexander Graham.” What makes for difficulty or ease in these poems? Have students continue to use the list of elements to rate and discuss Graham’s poem. As readers, how do they cope with difficult poems? Perhaps also pass out Charles Bernstein’s short essay, “The Difficult Poem.”