THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

[Sometime between 1938 and 1946]

My Dear

I opened the book at random today and found
“You walk unaware of the slender gazelle
that moves as you move
and is one with the limbs that you have”.¹

That is you my dear – & then the poem this morning – which has [moved] me to a ribald rhyme.
A line that is long
and a skirt which is short
10 feet for a thought
– and 2 for a song
– the thought shows 10 feet
But the song – oh how sweet
shows 2 of the fairest
shows 2 lovely limbs
therefore my hymns.

Love

RVW

1.  The opening of ‘To Maeve’ by Mervyn Peake, which was included in an anthology compiled by Walter de la Mare, Love (London, 1943), p.17, a book which Ursula had sent to VW .