Posts

Showing posts from February, 2020

Twisleton III

Image
Settle’s 2017 celebration of Tom Twisleton’s Centenary left his brother poet Henry Lea (1847-1905) in the shade. That was inevitable given Tom’s uniqueness as that rare breed of dialect poet. The two brothers started life up at Winskill two years apart sons of Frank Twisleton affectionately known as ‘The Craven Giant’, ardent in the Temperance cause. Henry’s poems are appended to most editions of ‘Poems in the Craven Dialect’ where we read: ‘Both brothers had the poetic soul, the poetic gift. In the one case it found its apt expression in the quaint and vigorous Craven dialect; in the other, in choice English and carefully polished lines’. This is the first of 79 poems published by Henry Lea Twisleton, younger brother of Craven dialect poet Tom Twisleton, of which a great proportion reflect on the seasons. Henry moved to New Zealand around 1875 where he lived the rest of his life and where the seasons fall differently. Leaves especially fall less with a preponderance of ever-g