Poet Helen Mackay

[Fred van Woerkom]

Who can give me information about poetess Helen Mackay. Born in America, she spent most of her life in France, where she nursed soldiers in a Parisian hospital during the Great War.

[Fred van Woerkom]

Very little is known about her. Even the site where I found the poem, The Train, mixed her up with a Scottish paediatrician of the same name and approximately the same dates.

 

Fred

[seaJane]

Full name Helen Gansevoort Edwards Mackay as per this blog which unravels the confusion: http://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/blog/will-the-real-helen-mackay-please-step-forward/

Several quotations from and mentions of her here: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/66938/1/WRAP_THESIS_Khan_1986.pdf

Her collection 'London, one November' online here: https://archive.org/details/londononenovembe00mack/page/n6

 

[Fred van Woerkom]

Quote

 

Thank you so much, Jane. Thou art the non-pareil! I had seen some of the things on the POETRYBYHEART site, but not the doctoral thesis and Helen Mackay's  LONDON, ONE NOVEMBER.

 

On the internet you can also listen to two girls reciting the poem and on YouTube there is an actor reading it and a Flemish actor reading his translation.

 

Fred

 

[Fred van Woerkom]

Jane,

Especially the 'London, one November' is very instructive. It shows in extenso her technique of avoiding  sentimentality buamongst other things, repetition and varying this repetition.

Thanks again.

 

Fred

[seaJane]

Good! I'm glad it's turned out useful.