Dear Sir

In a recent literary review, the writer quotes, without source, some lines from a poem by W H Auden, written probably in the 1930s. These lines are unusual, possibly unique, in that they include a passing reference to the game of Fives. The poet speaks of people who "pace in slippers on the lawns/Of College Quad or Cathedral Close,/ Who are born nurses, who live in shorts/Sleeping with people and playing Fives."

I wonder if any of your readers, whether or not they recognise themselves in the above description, can locate the source of these lines? Also, do any of your readers know of another major poet sufficiently inspired to acknowledge the existence of the game: Shelley or Lord Byron, perhaps?

Incidentally, in a recent magazine article concerning a well known ex-Harrovian, reference is made to him having indulged, during his schooldays, in "Harrow Fives". Is this noble institution on-the-hill hiding something from us, or was the perpetrator of the phrase just having some mildly wicked fun?

Editor's Note: The lines quoted arise from the original version of "consider this and in our time" - the text can be found in Auden's "Selected Poems" (Faber Edition) and was written two years before Auden started teaching at Downs School. Tom O'Connor kindly provided this update after contacting Auden's literary executor Edward Mendelson, who lives in New York.

Tom goes on to say that another Auden poem mentioning Fives is the unpublished poem "Give up love" which will appear in a selection of his poems "As I walked out one Evening", scheduled for publication by Faber in October 1995. The first stanza is about Anthony and Cleopatra and ends

"If they had gone in for Eton Fives
They wouldn't have gone and lost their lives."

M.R.F.

Poems
Created 20th February 2003
efa@etonfives.co.uk

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