Help please... Johnny...

[Agent X20]

The poem.. For Johnny..

Do not despair for ............Johnny .......head in air
He sleeps as sound as ......Johnny .......underground
Fetch out the shroud for... Johnny .......in the cloud
Better by far for ..............Johnny .......the bright star
To keep your head and see his children fed

John Pudney..

Does anyone know the exact date this was first written/published... as in which year...

Yep done all the various (from Internet and memory) on this.. it features in The Way to the Stars (UK title) / Johnny in the Clouds (US Title) a 1945 film with John Mills.. the Johnny there is Douglass Mongomerie an American pilot.. but is this not a Battle of Britain (as in RAF)..'tribute'.. to the Few....?

Any assistance be much appreciated (required next week for a reading).. help please Bob....!!

[NeilD]

on this website
http://www.learmedia.ca/product_info.php/products_id/94

found the following...credits poem to John Purdey......

The movie was obviously made as a morale booster at the end of the war in Europe and features an outstanding poem that serves as an epitaph to airmen killed in action. The poem is a parody on one written by Heinrich Hoffman, the title translating to `The Story of Johnny Head-In-Air' [1844].

For Johnny

Do not despair for Johnny head-in-air; he sleeps as sound as Johnny underground. Fetch out no shroud for Johnny-in-the-cloud; and keep your tears for him in after years. Better by far for Johnny-the-bright-star, to keep your head and see his children fed. [John Purdey (RAF 1941-1945)]

[Agent X20]

Thanks for that Neil.. I had got that far.. I was trying to ascertain if the poem was published during the war or 'released' for that film as many state that it is a tribute to the few.. not an American Bomber pilot.. as per the film..

[Martin Bull]

'For Johnny' was first published in book form in John Pudney's collection of poetry entitled 'Dispersal Point', ( John Lane, 1943 ). It was again reprinted in 'Air Force Poetry' ( John Lane, 1944 ).

I'm fairly certain that it first appeared in a periodical ( can't remember which one, I'm afraid :( ) also in 1943.

According to 'Poems Of The Second World War - The Oasis Selection' ( Everyman, 1985 ), the poem was 'Written on the back of an envelope during the London Blitz' which would seem to point to 1941 as the time it was written.

[Agent X20]

Thats ace Martin, many thanks..

I feel sure that I have seen it in one of the many wartime Aeroplane magazines boxed in the Loft.. go and do me stuff now..

[Martin Bull]

That's a pleasure, agent.....

The poem was most beautifully recited in the film ( can't remember the actress, now - Renee Asherson ? ) but was definitely well-known before then.

Poetry critics today find it fashionable to sneer at the poem ( 'a piece of doggerel' I've read it called :mad: ) but to me that's a cheap shot.

Agreed, it's simple - but it speaks to people directly and well expresses sentiments held at the time. A bit like Binyon's 'For The Fallen' ( at the going down of the sun...). Not a 'great' poem or poet, but it says what it has to say very well in language that you don't need a PhD to figure out.....

( I'll get down from my soapbox now ! :D )

[Agent X20]

Yes, 'For Johnny' and 'High Flight.... the latter looks like fun to read..... (dont have a .wav file of High Flight do you.. :D :D )

Mmmm seems that some were arther critical of Pudney's work.. WH Auden for one...

My dear John,

I read your poems through a number of times. They're no use.

They're very much better than what two or three thousand young Englishmen with literary interests are doing - any living writer under 40 who is any good has written the same sort of thing - but in themselves they're quite worthless.

Don't think I despise you for writing them. Your ego has got to shed its droppings just as your intestines have to. But they have exactly the same hygenic value and no more. They're droppings and not babies.

Don't ask me what you're to do because i haven't the slightest idea. What I feel inclined to say is, chuck all this literary business. Go and do something useful, like digging the roads or organizing strikes. Forget all about yourself. Learn to say "I'm very ordinary" and one day perhaps it will come back to you. He who loses his life shall find it.

A literateur is as useless to society as a collar stud to a nude woman.
If I can ever help you in any way, let me know.

Love, Wystan Auden.

[Martin Bull]

Oooooh! Those literary types - so bitchy ! ;)

Well now, let's see ; -

http://www.davidpbrown.co.uk/poetry/john-magee.html

:cool:

[Agent X20]

Thanks Martin I had that.. it was a .wav I needed...