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Mary Webb. “Alone.” Typescript poem, one leaf, 7″ x 8″, white wove watermarked paper. Eighteen lines in two stanzas, one correction. The title is written in black ink and may have been added at a later date. This tender love poem was written to Henry Bertram Law Webb during their courtship or 'walking out' from the village of Meole Brace into the rural countryside (Coles, Selected Poems of Mary Webb, 1981, p. 46). Webb draws on the details of nature for imagery expressive of her feelings—the call of the 'lonely cuckoo. . .knocks upon my heart'. Webb characteristically speaks of “mingled joy and pain.”