02/06/2025
William Henry Davies (3 July 1871 – 26 September 1940) was a Welsh poet and writer. Davies spent a significant part of his life as a tramp , in the UK and U S , he became one of the most popular poets of his time. His principal themes in his work are observations about life's hardships, the ways in which the human condition is reflected in nature, his own tramping adventures and the various characters he met. Davies is classed as one of the Georgian Poets, although his work is not typical that group, in either style or theme. He is buried in Nailsworth were he spent a large part of his life after he gave up his life a a gentleman of the road.
Possibly the one poem most of us will know, I got to know it through my house master is school.
During a house detention, I was an hour late as I sat in the field watching the young Badgers playing in the sun.
Mr Oosthuysen my house master made me learn the poem during my hours detention. Possibly the coolest teacher we had in school certainly a big influence in my life.
WHAT is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?—
No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
Photo of his cottage in Nailsworth Gloucestershire
