Henry Robert PIGOTT (1899-1981) was a graduate of the Royal Military College of Australia, Duntroon (1920), acquired Bachelor degrees from Sydney University in Arts (1928) and Science (1932), and made a career as a School Master in the Independent system (The King's School, Parramatta, 1923-35 and 1953-70; and St Peter's College, Adelaide, 1936-47), with a short spell in between as Headmaster (Brisbane Grammar School, 1948-52).
He was my father.
He also wrote poetry.
During his first stint at T.K.S., he published a small number of them in the School Magazine (published three times a year, at the end of each term, in May, September and December), under the pseudonym of LAETUS.
I am unsure as to who LAETUS actually was - some stalwart creative figure in ancient Rome, I imagined.
Four possible candidates were mentioned by John LEMPRIÈRE (ca 1765-1824), M.A. Oxon, in his "Bibliotheca Classica" (or "Classical Dictionary"), Reading, 1788, as having lived during the days of the Roman Empire:
1. A friend of CICERO, resident at Naples. CICERO (106-43 B.C.) was banned from Rome in 58 B.C.
2. A Roman condemned to death by COMMODUS (161-192 A.D.), Roman Emperor (jointly with his father, Marcus Aurelius) from 176, and on his own right from 180 until his death. This led to LAETUS conspiring against him and raising PERTINAX (126-193 A.D.) to the throne for the first three months of 193 A.D. Probably Quintus Aemilius LAETUS (died 193), a Praetorian Prefect (191-193), having been appointed by COMMODUS .
3. A General under SEVERUS (145-211 A.D.), he was executed for his treachery to that Emperor, or, according to others, for being popular! SEVERUS reigned as a despotic Emperor from about 194 until his death. Perhaps Quintus Maecius LAETUS, another Praetorian Prefect (205-211).
4. A writer on Phoenecia, mentioned by CLEMENS of Alexandria (150-215 A.D.).
It appears to me that none of these obviously put their hands to be H.R.P.'s "hero" - but I may be wrong.
I have also wondered whether he may have used the Latin name of Julius Pomponius LETO (1428-98), an Italian Humanist (by some accounts, not a good one), who was born in Salerno, studied in Rome under Lorenzo VALLA, whom he succeeded in 1457 as professor of eloquence at the Gymnasium Romanum, and shortly after founded the Academia Romanum, a semi-secret society devoted to archaeological and antiquarian interests and the celebration of ancient Roman rites - and who adopted Latin and Greek names, hence his variant LAETUS!
He fell foul of Papal authority in 1466, while on a visit to Venice, and spent a short time in prison on a charge, it is said, of sodomy.
Not, methinks, a man whom H.R.P. would have adopted as his poetic hero...?
H.R.P. did not publish the rest of his poetry, which he left after his death as a collection of manuscript works, some with a number of revisions, some very short, others longer, most on nature themes, some very few of his family, with one rather short one addressed to the five of his grand-children who were born before his death, which he had his daughter-in-law type up for him, had photo-copies made, but which were evidently not delivered to them.
I wonder whether I have any right to publish these, as he evidently chose not to do so himself.
So, I will limit this post to those that he did publish, and see whether I might be persuaded to continue with the rest, if my six siblings agree.
Chris PIGOTT.
cgpigott5@gmail.com
______________________________________________
Copyright © reserved to the legatees of the late Henry Robert PIGOTT (1899-1981).
______________________________________________
1. Written at his maternal grandmother's home in Rushcutter's Bay, 22 May 1926, after attending, with his sister Elsa (aged 19), a matinee performance by the acclaimed Russian Ballerina, Madame Anna PAVLOVA, of the Ballet "Snowflakes" (and several other works), at Her Majesty's Theatre, then in Pitt Street.
Published in the T.K.S. Magazine, September 1926:
PAVLOVA.
Think of cygnet's down
Floating through light,
Moving with Venus' grace
Through the clear night.
Dream of a fairy flower
Blown by a breath,
Yielding a petal soft
Rising from death.
See now a falling flake
Of whitest snow,
Drifting and wondering
Where it will go.
Gather and weave
These spirits of light
Into exquisite beauty
Soaring in flight.
2. A form of the following manuscript in H.R.P.'s files was published in the T.K.S. Magazine, December 1926:
Why should I seek to soar above the stars,
Or on some flashing meteor shoot through space
From shadow into light and thence in peace
Float calmly on to everlastingness?
Why should I want to wander to the moon
And wonder at the soft attracting power
She holds for sunbeams searching from afar,
Transforming them to waves of white romance?
And why upon an almost cloudless day,
Pray to a swiftly moving curlèd cloud,
To fold me in her fleeciness and fly
Through azure sky beyond the universe,
To golden sanded shore where light was born
To weave such beauty in her dear deep eyes
I need not. There was a reason once but now
Eternity, or love, lies in the heart
I've seen it rest in sweet content. In those two hours
Which mark the trysting place of night and day
I've seen the colours changing in the sky
Through tender softness of a twilight eve
Beyond the half-light to the cool calm night
Where peace seems pouring in from the starlit [indec]
And rest is rising from reflecting depths.
And all is one sweet singing dream of joy
I love my earth for all the flowers she bears
Flowers beautiful of form and breathing forth
A fragrance gathered from the breath of God.
I love her for the singing birds she feeds
Her birds sing sweetly not for gain or fame
But from a joy of having heard in heaven
The voice of all Love's tender loveliness.
3. Published in the T.K.S. Magazine, May 1928:
THE SCHOOL.
Back to the willows in the later Spring,
To hear again those cicadas sing;
To watch the old world river drift away
Beneath a School, stone clad in yellow-grey;
To work a little, and again to play
With fellows clear and clean as Summer's day;
To wander, hands thrust deep in red striped pants,
And swarm o'er Bill at break, like sugar ants;
To march in file and crunch with soldiers' feet
The gravel paths through flower beds smelling sweet;
To enter then a chapel rich with song
That rings heart echoes down the ages long.
Back must we fly, as fledglings to my tree,
Back in spirit, dream, and memory;
Oft leaving her with heart of youth aflame
For deeds that tarnish not her lustrous name.
4. Published in the Blayney press [source pending - not found on trove]:
MY YOUTH.
(Anonymous Native.)
Blayney, thou cradle of my youth,
How often have I rocked in Thee,
To sleep made roseate with
My dreams at dawn.
How often as a god I've waked,
And wandered through the briared lanes,
Hearing thy singing birds,
Breathing thine air.
Oh Time, when thou hast turned thy course,
Bring me to Blayney in the Spring;
And let me draw again
One long deep breath.
5. Dated winter 1928.
Published in the T.K.S. Magazine, December 1928:
WATTLE.
Oft have I watched the cold, grey drops
Of winter rain;
And heard them dripping branch from branch
To frozen plain.
Darkly they pass through moaning pine
Of gloomy green;
Starkly they hang on leafless boughs
Of life unseen.
Then have I yearned for golden rain
Of Southern sun,
That gilds the new-born buds with joy
Of Spring begun.
6. Published in the T.K.S. Magazine, September 1928 - the school colours were sky blue and white:
LIGHT BLUE AND WHITE.
Noonday clouds of curling white
Drifting through the deeps of light;
Billowed sails that racing make
Airy foam and lacèd wake;
White winged gulls that wheel and cry
Mid the blue of sea and sky;
Rising at the dawn of time
Blue and white were wed to rhyme
In a poem writ o'er space
Blue for beauty, white for grace.
Now a wren with azure wings
From an arum cluster sings;
Carvèd stones of purest white
Hold a garden's soft blue light,
Light of evening after rain
When all beauty breathes again.
7. Published in the T.K.S. Magazine, September 1929, accompanied by Illustrations by "Robbo":
SPRAYING.
1. EXTERNAL EVIDENCE.
Some archèd tongues are so tremendous that
They fill the mouth with latent orat'ry,
Guarding cavernous throated parasites
From purging sprays and modern alchemy.
But joy of joys, there too are tiny tomgues,
Pursed like a rose-bud for the morning dew;
And down their gently curving channels flow
Drops dealing death to Captain Scarlet's crew.
2. INTERNAL EVIDENCE.
"Say Ah," they say. T'were better far to drown
In deeps made saline with an age of tears,
Than suffer this with epiglottis up,
The noisome show'ring of six squeezèd fears.
Better by far to drown and drown and drown,
Than to allow the nobly Roman nose
To fill with evil oily merchandise,
And lose the beauty of its classic pose.
8. Published in the T.K.S. Magazine, May 1933:
OLD BOY MEMORIES.
Among the ashes of my fading fire
Life's thoughts are grey
Until the breathing of a memory
Upon its way
Stirs static embers to the crimson glow
Of youth's own day.
I feel the leathern magic in my hands
Full time is nigh
And light blue-jersied comrades run so true
That even I
Grow wingèd feet and score I know not how
The winning try.
When summer clothèd cricket leads to where
The river bends
Around an oval fringed with dear green trees
And dearer friends
To me an old school spirit of the past
His genius lends.
Come moments fraught with stern limbed poise and power
From training done,
Strong moments when the power is unrestrained
By starter's gun
To send one's heart a'racing to the roar
"The School has won."
Come tested moments when the mind is filled
With wanted lore
Come thou to stay and weave within my heart
A cherished store
Of blue and white beauty and their followers
For ever more.
9. Written in November 1935.
Published in the T.K.S. Magazine, December 1935:
JACARANDA.
Rising above the fronded grove:-
Blending a luminous living mauve
With noon-day deeps of the bluest day,
Or among the gently clouded gray.
Bell-like the blossoms are that fall
To the star-lit fairies' softest call -
Fall to a cadence low and sweet,
The rhythm of dancers' tiny feet.
Oh, that the mystic veils would rise,
Or that the spirit fully wise
Could see the Beauty within the sells
And hear the music of the bells.
___________________________________________________________________
THE OTHER WORKS OF HENRY ROBERT PIGOTT.
Not yet published.
Numbers 1-5 remain unlocated.
6.
SERVICE
Give me a small piece of blue sky,
The waving branch of a tree,
And a singing bird and I
Shall dream of paradise.
But give me the same piece of sky,
The same whispering bough,
Two singing birds and a kindred soul,
And I shall dream, yes, and wake in paradise.
Eternity from the sky;
Music from the songs of birds;
And love from a kindred soul.
But if you can't find me a kindred soul;
Give me the whole of mankind instead,
And an understanding heart,
And I shall gain heaven in my service.
18. Published in the Blayney-West Macquarie Newspaper, of unknown date.
BLAYNEY'S HILLS.
[Reflections of a "Come back."]
Some mountains frown, and rugged lose
Their height in Heaven's cloud.
Some scarred and worn by Nature's power
Seem old and harsh and proud.
But Blayney's hills are smiling oft,
And in round smoothness rest,
Containing Nature's other self,
The self of love more blest.
With little mountains joining hands
These hills like angels rise,
To guard our peace from worlds beneath
And point us to the skies.
And when spring clothes their singing souls
With wondrous growth of green;
Then surely there, no fairer place
Since Paradise, was seen.
By a native, who is happy to have come "Back to Blayney."
19.
CONCERNING BLAYNEY'S UGLY MAN.
[With apologies to Rudyard KIPLING.]
The peace of Blayney was disturbed
By wrangling mortal's fuss,
Each strove amain to be acclaimed
The man most hideous.
And one was BROWN, another BLACK,
Of many trades they were.
A PORTER dark, an ancient CLARK,
A COOK, a GARDINER.
The lords MACAULAY two were out
For PILE at any PRICE
Nor HILL, nor BULLOCH's blinding charge,
Could stop them being crowned twice.
Not BEDDIE, BEMBRICK, CROFTS, nor CRANE,
Nor Highland DAKER's flail,
Nor KIERNAN could withstand the lash
Of Blayney's WINTER hail.
"O'NEILL to MOAD" said OLIVER,
"And ask him for more light,
"For PIGOTT's face and LUTON's pace,
"Lose virtue in the night."
But sad to say, young MATTHEWS made
His laughter rather free,
Till CHETTLE's ears roused CONROY's fears.
And GLASSON failed to see.
Of others MALLON, O'MALLEY.
And PATRICK, ROWLANDS too,
R. MARSHALL and CHENEY, alas,
Their handsomeness will rue.
And VIDLER, MARTIN, MOLONEY,
And COLBERT and QUIGLEY,
Are fairer far than those before,
And so defeat will see.
- ANON.
See [A] below, for identification of some of the above Blayney surnames.
32. Dated 30 July 1926.
ASPIRATION.
Oh I could dream away the long Spring day
In soaring to some shining mountain place
Where I would hear in soft arboreal shade
the happy music of a moving stream.
Where lying in newborn peace upon a cloud
Soft woven from the rolling mountain mists
My outward self would quite dissolve away
And leave my heart alone in Beauty's home.
With senses purified those songs I'd hear
Which speed an angel to his task of love
Of nightless nightingale to pain unknown
And lark whose unseen singing thrills the sky.
A scent distilled from twilit garden bowers
With incense breathed from purity of soul
Descending as the summer's blossoms showers
Would fill me with a fragrant ecstasy.
I should not gaze, for sights would follow thought
In one amazing glory of ascent
Through universal sunrise to the source
Of clear unveilèd Beauty, God himself.
I cannot muse away the short Spring day
While earth holds anything but purest joy
But from my flashing dreams I'll gather flowers
For service to the searching hearts of men.
41. Undated.
TO MOTHER.
Thrush coloured eyes of gray
That seem to say:
"Dear children will you see
My love for thee?"
Love-woven mother heart,
A wingèd dart
Leaves luminous the way
Thy children stray.
Dark gypsy wisps of hair,
Waving in air
Are fleeced with flakes of snow
The wind years blow.
In old Arcadian dale,
The nightingale
Would pause, then sing again
Thy voice to strain.
Let not the memory
Of melody
Dim hair and holy eyes
With ageing sighs.
But hold firm faith that we
By works will be
More worthy of thy sacrifice
And dear grey eyes.
_____________________________________________________
[A] SOME OF BLAYNEY'S MEN IDENTIFIED:
BEDDIE, David S., Blacksmith/Engineer; of Adelaide Street, Blayney, Engineer, 1908 (with Elizabeth, Home Duties), 1928; signatory to the Rev James ADAM's Illustrated Address, 1908; married at Blayney, 1914, to Elsie M. DAVIDSON.
BEMBRICK, Emil James, Blayney, Storekeeper, 1928, with Ethel Blanche, Home Duties
BLACK, James William, Adelaide Street, Blayney, Saddler, 1908, 1928.
BLACK, Thomas Alfred, Adelaide Street, Compositor, 1908, 1928.
BLACK, Joseph BLACK, Blayney, Packer, 1908.
BROWN, Charles; signatory to the Rev James ADAM's Illustrated Address, 1908.
BULLOCH, Edward (1880-1955); buried at Blayney Cemetery, with his wife Bertha Alice (LUCK); issue - Laurence C. (born 1905).
CHENEY, George Alfred (1870-1950; buried in Blayney Cemetery, with his wife Jane Paynter (ROWE).
CHENEY, Thomas George (died 1966, aged 63), buried in Blayney Cemetery, husband of Florence and father of Henry, Noel, James and Colin.
CHENEY, Thomas Herbert (died 1955, aged 82), buried in Blayney Cemetery, and his wife Hannah (WALLACE).
CHENEY, Keith Albert (died 1973, aged 62), buried in Blayney Cemetery, with his wife Joan veronica may (STONESTREET).
CLARK, William Senior; signatory to the Rev James ADAM's Illustrated Address, 1908, along with Rev Alexander CLARK, and Miss Mary CLARK.
COLBERT, Daniel James, Adelaide Street, Blayney, Grocer, 1928, with Ethel Rebecca, Home Duties.
CONROY, Lionel B.H. (1880-1026), Physician, buried at Blayney Cemetery.
COOK, John, of Brown's Creek, Labourer, 1908, 1928, with Amy, Home Duties, 1908; signatory to the Rev James ADAM's Illustrated Address, 1908, with Mrs COOK senior; married at Blayney, 1907, to Amy JUDD.
COOK, Samuel, signatory to the Rev James ADAM's Illustrated Address, 1908.
CROFTS, Bernard (1860-1919); buried at Blayney, with his wife Ellen (1862-1946), and sons Arthur (see next) and Harrie (1890-1958).
CROFTS, Arthur (1884-1952), was married secondly, at Blayney, 1917, to Lila Belle CLEMENTS (died 1974, aged 83).
DAKERS, Charles John, Osman Street, Blayney, Police Constable, 1928, with wife Florence Lily; served as police Constable in Blayney for 19 years; the Daker's Oval in Blayney was named in his honour; he died in Lithgow, April 1945.
DAKERS, Albert John, Blayney, Labourer, 1928.
DAKERS, William (1860-1934), Blayney, Retired Ganger, 1928; buried at Blayney, 1934, father of Charles, William and Albert.
GARDINER, Julian (1866-1935), of King's Plains, Teacher, 1908, 1928; buried at Blayney with his wife Katherine Jane; issue - Dorothy C. (born 1897); Archibald K. (born 1900); Norman C. (born 1908).
GARDINER, Archibald Keith, of King's Plains, Orchardist, 1928.
GARDINER, Alice Aloise, King's Plains, Home Duties, 1928.
GLASSON, Richard (1837-1895), and his wife Aphra Maria (LANGLEY); she was at Atholl, Blayney, Home Duties, 1908; she died 22 September 1925, aged 81.
GLASSON, James Russell (1845-1890); married to ...
GLASSON, John (died 6 March 1920, aged 72); signatory to the Rev James ADAM's Illustrated Address, 1908; married to Anne Margaret (died 13 April 1944, aged 79); they had issue - David Havelock GLASSON (k.i.a., Macedonia, 12 March 117, aged 29), John Cyprian (1886-1887), Dorothy Margaret (1892-93), and William Allen (1897-98).
GLASSON, J.F., signatory to the Rev James ADAM's Illustrated Address, 1908.
GLASSON, Richard Mervyn, of Blayney, Independent Means, 1908; Mr and Mrs R. GLASSON were signatories to the Rev James ADAM's Illustrated Address, 1908.
GLASSON, Claude Russell, Trevellyan, Blayney, Pastoralist, 1928, with Valerie Edith, Home duties.
HILL, Archibald Ulster, Blayney, Agent, 1908, 1928.
LUTON, William Wheeler, Blayney, Bank Manager, 1928, with Priscilla Judith, Home Duties.
MACAULAY, Alan Dudley, Lindon, Charles Street, Blayney, Storekeeper, 1928, with Vera Annie, Home duties.
MACAULAY, John Leslie Henderson, Charles street, Blayney, Storekeeper, 1928.
MATTHEWS, James, Plum street, Blayney West, Agent, 1928, with Selina Ethel Jane, Home Duties.
MATTHEWS, John, Gilchrist street, Blayney, Farmer, 1928, with Sarah, Home Duties.
MATTHEWS, William Henry, Willow Vale, Blayney, Farmer, 1928, with Martha Elizabeth, Home Duties; also Henry, Farmer, and Elizabeth, ditto.
MOAD, William M.; married at Blayney, 1895, to Elizabeth C. BRAILEY; issue born Orange - William O. (born 1898); Myrle (born 1910).
MOAD, Arthur, Blayney, Engineer, 1928, with Charlotte Jane, Home Duties.
MOLONEY, James, Blayney, Chemist, 1928.
MARSHALL, Richard Robert, Butcher, 1928, with Hilda Mary, Home Duties.
MARTIN, Kingsley, Mount street, Blayney, Engine Driver, 1928; married at Blayney, 1911, to Violet May LUCK.
O'MALLEY, Martin, Hill Street, Blayney, Labourer, 1928, with Annie, Home Duties; and John Junior, Labourer, ditto.
O'MALLEY, Phillip, Adelaide Street, Blayney, Labourer, 1928.
O'MALLEY, Annie, Mary Rose and Winnie, all of Blayney, Home Duties, 1928.
OLIVER, Robert Milburn, Blayney, Farmer, 1908, and of Blayney, Grazier, 1928; married at Blayney, 1911, to Ruby Millicent SOUTHWELL; she was with him in 1928, Home Duties.
PATRICK, George Edward, Blayney, Butcher, 1928.
PATRICK, George Tabour, Blayney, Farmer, 1928, possibly with Ella Mary, Home Duties.
PATRICK, Edward, Tuckwood Farm, Blayney, 128, with Esther and Edith Mary, both Home Duties.
PIGOTT, Henry Robert Maguire (1866-1949), Auctioneer and Land Agent; father of the poet Laetus.
PILE, George, Adelaide Street, Solicitor, 1908, and of Hill Street, Solicitor, 1928; married at Blayney, 1896, to Elizabeth Margaret DEATH; issue - Victoria (born 1901), George A. (born 1902); Norah J. (born 1911).
PRICE, (Wesley) Creel (1897-1994), assistant auctioneer to H.R.M. PIGOTT; of Osman Street, Auctioneer, 1928, with Eva, Home Duties; buried at Blayney, with his wife Eva Ellen (STONESTREET).
QUIGLEY, Thomas, The Square, Blayney, Farmer, 1928, with Annie and Bernard; married firstly, Vina S.; issue - William P. (born 1910); he married secondly, at Blayney, 1909, to Sophia A. WATSON; issue - Alice T. (born 1913).
QUIGLEY, Edward, Osman street, Blayney, Farmer, 1928, with Mary and Annie, both Home Duties.
QUIGLEY, John Michael, of Osmon street, Blayney, Vigneron, 1928.
ROWLANDS, Alfred James, The Pines, Neville, Farmer, 128, with Helen Ewing, Home Duties.
WINTER, Albert; married at Blayney, 1919, to Marion E. BOYD.
