Apple Tree Wassail

Monthly Thought

Wy is the word toast applied to a drink? In the week leading up to the Yule festivities I heard something on the radio that really grabbed my attention; someone explained the derivation of the word toast meaning a drink to someone’s or something’s health, and to raise a toast. I knew immediately I wanted to write something about it. The idea formed relatively quickly which gave me time to do several revisions. But the poem is still fresh so it may be further revised later.

The poem, Apple Tree Wassail, is in a slightly free version of the ballad form; this, I hope, reflects the history involved and the folk element too. The tradition of wassailing and the folk lore involved in it I certainly wish to celebrate.

By freeing up the ballad form, I give myself space to tell the story.

There is a big narrative shift for the final stanza. The poet, or rather the speaker of the poem, is no longer telling a story of Adam and wassailing; he or she addresses the people to whom he or she is speaking. While speaking mode and body language will effect this change, the speaker is aided by the repetition of come; moreover, mediaeval Adam could not have pastiched Friends , Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears, which the present day speaker can. The speaker invites the people around to raise a toast to the New Year.

I am pleased to say the poem was used twice this year for that purpose. So two small groups of people have been linked directly to people in our distant pass.

Reading

I have completed the fourth of Richard Osmond’s Thursday Murder Club novels. They just go on getting better and better. I keep recommending them to everyone.

Writing

I have written a few new poems, including Apple Tree Wassail above. Much of my time, at the moment, is taken up completing and signing off my Arts Council project. One workshop and one mentoring session to go.

I am at present editing once more the book of the music play Magpie. Many of the changes result from hearing the songs performed. I thought it would be a quick job, but it is much harder than I thought it would be. So takes longer. But is worth it.