How Much Are Great Poems Worth?

The sale of poet and scholar Roy Davids' remarkable poetry collection, part of which took place at Bonhams Auction House in London this past week, offered us a glimpse of just how valuable collectors consider rare poetry manuscripts to be.
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - JANUARY 07: Lucy Clarke of Bonham's, views a book of poems by Jamal al-Din Abu Muhammad Nizami at an Islamic Art Exhibition at Bonham's on January 7, 2013 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The private collection of Islamic Art is due to be exhibited from January 8 - 13th at Bonham's in Edinburgh. This collection has never been seen in public before and is Scotland's largest private and internationally important collection of Islamic art including over 650 items from pre-Islamic and Islamic culture. Primarily featuring objects from the Land of Timur, Central Asia; those on display are ancient ceramics, bronzes, books, goblets, glass, furniture, paintings, textiles and coins. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - JANUARY 07: Lucy Clarke of Bonham's, views a book of poems by Jamal al-Din Abu Muhammad Nizami at an Islamic Art Exhibition at Bonham's on January 7, 2013 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The private collection of Islamic Art is due to be exhibited from January 8 - 13th at Bonham's in Edinburgh. This collection has never been seen in public before and is Scotland's largest private and internationally important collection of Islamic art including over 650 items from pre-Islamic and Islamic culture. Primarily featuring objects from the Land of Timur, Central Asia; those on display are ancient ceramics, bronzes, books, goblets, glass, furniture, paintings, textiles and coins. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

The sale of poet and scholar Roy Davids' remarkable poetry collection, part of which took place at Bonhams Auction House in London this past week, offered us a glimpse of just how valuable collectors consider rare poetry manuscripts to be. Lovingly pieced together over 40 years, Davids' collection featured manuscripts by Keats, Auden, Eliot, Hopkins, Burns, Dickinson and even Winston Churchill. Bonhams called it the "finest collection of poetry ever come to auction."

It seems John Keats has the healthiest legacy of the impressive bunch. A draft of just part of his well-known poem "I stood tiptoe on a little hill," sold for £181,250 (about $280,000), more than four times its estimate. Here's an excerpt:

I stood tip-toe upon a little hill,
The air was cooling, and so very still,
That the sweet buds which with a modest pride
Pull droopingly, in slanting curve aside,
Their scantly leaved, and finely tapering stems,
Had not yet lost those starry diadems
Caught from the early sobbing of the morn.

"Our Modern Watchwords," a rare poem by Winston Churchill, was undoubtedly the auction's biggest disappointment, failing to sell when bids stopped short of estimates. Written on the eve of a naval battle, Churchill's poem is all Queen and country and--while he's certainly no Keats--isn't an embarrassing effort. Here's an except from the poem, which I wrote about in detail in February:

The shadow falls along the shore
The search lights twinkle on the sea
The silence of a mighty fleet
Portends the tumult yet to be.
The tables of the evening meal
Are spread amid the great machines
And thus with pride the question runs
Among the sailors and marines
Breathes there the man who fears to die
For England, Home, & Wai-hai-wai.

A manuscript of W.H. Auden's heart-wrenching lyric "Stop All the Clocks," made famous by the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral, sold for £23,750 ($36,500), and a hand-edited, typed manuscript of T.S. Eliot's "Journey of the Magi" went for £44,450 ($68,000). Eliot's effort isn't your average Christmas poem. It ends with the magi returning from witnessing the birth of Christ:

We returned to our palaces, these Kingdoms
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

Other highlights of the collection include a rare, handwritten poem by Charlotte Bronte that sold for £92,450 ($142,000), Gerard Manley Hopkins' "Binary Poplars," which fetched £49,250 ($75,721), and Emily Dickinson's "She Sped as Petals from a Rose," which brought in £31,250 ($48,000).

You can look through all the auction results at Bonham's website here.

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot