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PT025
[Typescript Poem] “Presences”

  1. 00018590_0001
  2. 00018590_0002

Mary Webb. “Presences.” “Lyth Hill / Shrewsbury.” in pencil on verso. Typescript poem, one leaf, 6¼″ x 5½″, white laid watermarked paper. Eighteen lines, two ink corrections. The title is written in black ink and appears to have been added to the sheet at a later date. Cut from a larger sheet. Penciled number “52” in upper-right corner. “Presences” reveals Webb’s spiritual oneness with her Shropshire landscape. All things around her in nature were at once the symbol and embodiment of a living, creative truth, which she thought of as the living God. Webb drew inspiration from Lyth Hill—where she lived in Spring Cottage—with its view across the Shropshire Plain to the hills beyond.