Raine

KATHLEEN RAINE (1908 - 2003)

Kathleen Raine was born in Ilford, Essex, the daughter of a Scots mother, who was a major influence on her daughter and a Durham father (born in Wingate). Her paternal grandfather was a Durham miner, and Kathleen stayed at the village post-office in Newfield on at least one occasion. Her parents met as students at Armstrong College in Newcastle.

Kathleen spent part of World War I, 'a few short years', with her Aunty Peggy Black at the Manse in Great Bavington: 'I loved everything about it.' For her it was an idyllic world and is the declared foundation of all her poetry. Kathleen always remembered Northumberland as Eden. 'In Northumberland I knew myself in my own place; and I never 'adjusted' myself to any other or forgot what I had so briefly but clearly seen and understood and experienced.' This period is described in the first book of her autobiography Farewell Happy Fields (1973). Kathleen's maternal grandfather worked as a teacher in Kielder, and after his retirement lived at 1 Percy Terrace, Bellingham. Kathleen had vivid and happy memories of the house and the fields around, with their flowers, mushrooms (often puffballs) as well as the flowers in her grandfather's garden and the fuchsias in his window. She also mentions outings to Newbiggin-on-Sea.

In 1939-41 Kathleen and her children shared a house at 49a Wordsworth Street in Penrith with Janet Adam Smith and Michael Roberts (q.v.) and later lived in Martindale. She was a friend of Winifred Nicholson and remarked that she had failed to realise how near this area was to her beloved

Inviolate sanctuaries of the heather and the bees
The hare's form, the lapwing's nest, the high places of joy.
(The Roman Wall Revisited)

Kathleen's unrequited love for Gavin Maxwell was an important event in her life. She recalls standing on the bridge at Kielder, as he had done - 'Gavin was native of my paradise' - and he used a beautiful line from one of her poems as the title of his famous otter book A Ring of Bright Water. The poem does not refer to Maxwell, it should be stressed. Love, even unrequited love, is the power that moves all things, and though when the relationship ended in 1956, she felt that her life was ended too, in fact it proved to be a rich beginning.

Kathleen Raine published thirteen books of poetry, including much verse about Northumberland. She regarded herself as a major poet of the second rank, but is world-famous for her scholarship on W.B. Yeats and William Blake. She founded the magazine Temenos and for many years she was involved with the Temenos project, aimed at bringing about a change of heart in society, and move it in an anti-materialist direction. She had what she called 'a sense of the sacred' an intense, mystical view of the natural world. This also informs her work on William Blake and the Neoplatonic tradition.

Myers Literary Guide:	The North-East
KATHLEEN RAINE (1908 - 2003) Kathleen Raine was born in Ilford, Essex, the daughter of a Scots mother, who was a major influence on her daughter and a Durham father (born in Wingate). Her paternal grandfather was a Durham miner, and Kathleen stayed at the village post-office in Newfield on at least one occasion. Her parents met as students at Armstrong College in Newcastle. Kathleen spent part of World War I, 'a few short years', with her Aunty Peggy Black at the Manse in Great Bavington: 'I loved everything about it.' For her it was an idyllic world and is the declared foundation of all her poetry. Kathleen always remembered Northumberland as Eden. 'In Northumberland I knew myself in my own place; and I never 'adjusted' myself to any other or forgot what I had so briefly but clearly seen and understood and experienced.' This period is described in the first book of her autobiography Farewell Happy Fields (1973). Kathleen's maternal grandfather worked as a teacher in Kielder, and after his retirement lived at 1 Percy Terrace, Bellingham. Kathleen had vivid and happy memories of the house and the fields around, with their flowers, mushrooms (often puffballs) as well as the flowers in her grandfather's garden and the fuchsias in his window. She also mentions outings to Newbiggin-on-Sea. In 1939-41 Kathleen and her children shared a house at 49a Wordsworth Street in Penrith with Janet Adam Smith and Michael Roberts (q.v.) and later lived in Martindale. She was a friend of Winifred Nicholson and remarked that she had failed to realise how near this area was to her beloved Inviolate sanctuaries of the heather and the bees The hare's form, the lapwing's nest, the high places of joy. (The Roman Wall Revisited) Kathleen's unrequited love for Gavin Maxwell was an important event in her life. She recalls standing on the bridge at Kielder, as he had done - 'Gavin was native of my paradise' - and he used a beautiful line from one of her poems as the title of his famous otter book A Ring of Bright Water. The poem does not refer to Maxwell, it should be stressed. Love, even unrequited love, is the power that moves all things, and though when the relationship ended in 1956, she felt that her life was ended too, in fact it proved to be a rich beginning. Kathleen Raine published thirteen books of poetry, including much verse about Northumberland. She regarded herself as a major poet of the second rank, but is world-famous for her scholarship on W.B. Yeats and William Blake. She founded the magazine Temenos and for many years she was involved with the Temenos project, aimed at bringing about a change of heart in society, and move it in an anti-materialist direction. She had what she called 'a sense of the sacred' an intense, mystical view of the natural world. This also informs her work on William Blake and the Neoplatonic tradition.
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