Sunday, February 03, 2013

From service to service

Joyce Grenfell was a gifted writer & performer of comic monologues; the one about the nursery school teacher coping with the problem of George was especially popular.

Her poems now provide often touching but revealing insights into the social history of the life of the upper middle classes in mid twentieth century Britain & the upheavals of war.

This one reminds me of Winifred Peck’s novel about another woman’s experiences of ‘the servant problem.’

Tribute to a treasure
A young hand-maiden served me once,
She house-kept with a pleasing grace.
Her temperament was calm & light,
Her very presence blessed the place.
She never got a message wrong,
She cooked & cleaned, she sewed & swept;
She washed & ironed, she fed the dog:
She almost never over-slept.
Nor did she self-indulge in moods
To load my heart with weighty fears
By looking martyred, cross or hurt;
Instead she sang along the years.
Five happy years of carefree days!
And now my loved & leaned-on staff
Has, rightly, lain her apron by
To go in service with the WAAF
Joyce Grenfell 1941

Links
Joyce Grenfell: Hats Off
University of Bristol: Joyce Grenfell archive
YouTube: Nursery School
Related posts
House-bound
Meme multiplied
Jobs worth doing