Lyrics by Lamplight (Collection from booklet)

WT published a collection of his poetry in 1968 under the title ‘Lyrics by Lamplight’. The modest booklet came out in 1968 with a foreword by P. Leighton Stowell, who calls them a ‘very valuable edition to Manx Literature’.

The poems were dedicated as follows:
One August evening many many years ago six of us were reclining in a bell-tent, feet to pole, somewhere in the heart of a Manx valley. It was drawing dusk outside but inside the scene was illuminated by a hurricane lamp hanging from a peg on the pole.

No one spoke for a while, only the music of the stream just outside the tent flap could be heard. Then suddenly the irrepressible member of the group sat up and cried, ‘come on, let’s have a lyric by lamplight!’ It is in belated reply to that call, and in memory of one who has since passed on to eternal light, that this volume has been written.’

You will find here a list of all the 42 poems printed in the book, in the same order, as well as two further poems that WT had hand-written into his personal copy on the back cover pages.