Saturday, May 1. [1937]

The same poem: tentatively finished in eight drafts - two days, 12 lines. The Wretch. Laura doing letters & Schools. Three best reviews of T,Ending all by poets - Gibson, MacNiece, Coffey. Lugano beflagged, & illuminated at night. 'Espaùa' sunk by Govt airplane: Basque counter-attack.

Sunday, May 2nd. [1937]

Another draft of The Wretch. Wild delphiniums & narcissus from Gentillino. Laura going over Ghost Ch.2. Began Ch.3. Headache at night. Gave notice that we are leaving by June 1st.

Monday, May 3rd. [1937]

Ghost 3rd chapter. Laura going over & greatly adding to second ch. Wrote letters to children, also Bill, & Frank Morley who had sent me David Jones' In Parenthesis - a war book by Joyce out of Eliot. Times Lit.Supp Centenary number 1837-1937 leaving everyone out of its eulogies who was not dead in 1926. Wrote a letter about it.

Tuesday, May 4th. [1937]

Letter from Rennes. Gelat still expecting release. Another draft of The Wretch, and two of Poets; a new one, soon written. Working with Laura on Schools & she going over poems. Beer at Gentillino, where peasants drunken and fascinated by their howled part song. Spotted orchids & wild narcissus.

Wednesday, May 5th. [1937]

Schools again with LÙaura - reached typed page 85. Ghost; Chapter III draft. First two chapters have made 11,000 words. Laura bought blue hand-woven linen handkerchief for 4 fr.50. Laura writing letters. Syndicalist revolt in Catalonia.

Thursday, May 6th [1937]

Finished draft of Chapter III Ghost. Laura at letters; & poems. Moth found in one of Laura's dresses so had to clear her whole cuphboard out & hang clothes on balcony outside my room. Walk behind station in a wooded valley: many wildflowers - ragged-robin, Star of Bethlehem, & a sort of dry grassy blue-bell. Schwarz & Str returned. Presents: for Karl a leather box, for Laura a lace collar, for me a vellum bound (1629) letters of some Cardinal & a Bygentine (12thCent.)rounded coin with King(s) and a female saint: to be made into a brooch.

Friday, May 7th. [1937]

Petty ill-lucks. Sore mouth, stopping lost from tooth, splinter in foot when answering a door to a bleating clergyman who addressed me as "Mr.Page". Went over Ch 3 of Ghost. Laura doing letters & going over Norman's translation. Honor has a job at last. Took coin to be made into Brooch. Black-out as air-raid precaution all over Tessin (?).

Saturday, May 8th [1937]

To a dentist & had nerve of tooth slowly killed. Rest of day rather miserable. Strawberries & Cream when Schw & Str came to tea. A brandy at Olympia. To bed soon after supper. Trying to go over poems, but unable to concentrate. Laura particularly attentive. Carl went for an excursion to Como & Cardenabbia to get material for Ghost. Laura going over Schools. Barcelona quiet again. Zepp. blows up.

Sunday, May 9th [1937]

Going over poems retyped by Karl: another draft of Smoke. Started poem about the couple I once met. Coffee with Schw & str. & late at night to Gambrinus for ice & grenadine. Lugano already a plesant memory to Laura & me.

Monday, May 10th . [1937]

More work on poems; & on the new one. Went into Lugano with Laura to dentist. Three answers to I.C. by one post and a strange letter from Maisie accusing Laura of judging by hearsay: which meant long letters to her, practically breaking things off. Schools with Laura. Nickel came, back from Rome. Thundery weather.

Tuesday, May 11th. [1937]

Working on the poem still: no title yet. Going over other poems typed by Karl. Laura went over chapter III of Ghost. People seeing over the house: more from curiosity than really wanting to let it. Thunderstorm. Paid rent for the last time. Goodbye to Nickel.

Wedmesday, May 12th. [1937] Coronation Day.

It rained all day & all night. Started Chapter IV of The Ghost and another version of the poem, now called The Stranger: the couple changed to a single woman. English tourists wearing red white & blue, & a party at the consul's, to which I was not invited. Critical days in Basque fighting: on Mount Solubbe. Government advances in Guadarrama & Toledo. Laura going over the last of her poems.

Thursday, May 13th. [1937]

Fine, then much rain. Another version of The Stranger & 2 versions of the resuscitated poem: The Last March. Work on Ghost. Laura doing poems. She has bad nights again. Arthut Barker writes that the Claudius film is almost certianly being abandoned. Damage to destroyer Hunter: it looks like an incident rather than an accident.

Friday, May 14th. [1937]

Another version of Last March. Work on Ghost. To Montagnola & beyond - longest walk since Deyà - & brought back a sort of wild sweet-william & spotted orchids. Wearing summer things for first time.

Saturday, May 15th. [1937]

Harry & Alix are taking a house for us at Ewhurst in Surrey, near Dorking & Guildford. Nearly finished Chap 4 of Ghost. Boil much better. Another draft of The Last March. Going over poems typed by Karl. Got my coin brooch back. At 66 went four times running for a tailor, lost each time.

Sunday, May 16th. [1937] Whitsun.

Woke with a sick headache, ate no breakfast. Took an aspirin & walked to Gentillino. All right for Ziebert lunch. Finished Chap 4 Ghost. Laura writing letters. Karl & I went to see the play at the roulette tables at the Kursaal. I lost a few francs.

Monday, May 17th. [1937] Whitmonday.

Woke up with a headache. Walked it off up Mount San Salvatore, reaching a village called Pazallo. Brought back a mixed bunch of wild flowers: pasque flowers, narcissus, wild lupins, ragged robin, marguerite - etc. In afternoon got it again & slept it off. In evening worked on Poems: foreword & order of poems. Laura also had a headache. (Heavy weather, Whitsun crowds), Last of Central Heating.

Tuesday, May 18th. [1937]

It was a heavy wretched day: went with Laura to her dentist & took brooch to be put right again (pin split). Coffee in Olympia after. Poems. Laura finished a poem The Victory. Started Ch, 5 of Ghost. We cannot have the Ewhurst house until 18th. Insomnia problem of Laura's. Read her Coleridge's Miscellaneous Criticism because her eyes were bad. Walk at evening to Carabbia beyond Pazello on the hill - beyond the villa limit. Started a poem about the ghosts, the pupil(?) of the heart.

Wednesday, May 19th [1937]

Still heavy weather. No answer from Maisie yet. Two more drafts of poem, now called Or To Perish Before Day which Laura, with one or two small alterations, passed. Bill Pollock & his wife will go to Majorca in July for a holiday, they write. Feeling the weight of exile more than ever. Discussion of next step: money, publishing, friends etc. Karl doing watercolours of flowers. Laura going over Chapter 4 of Ghost.

Thursday, May 20th. [1937]

Ghost. Started Chapter V. Laura finished Chapter IV. Heavy rainy weather. Going over Poems. Wrote a letter with Laura to Daily Telegraph about Baldwin & the Poets. First review of Heathen - an unexpectedly very good one in the Times.Lit.Supp. Bilbao still holding out.

Friday, May 21st. [1937]

Ghost & Poems. An article on Int. Letter in last week's Spectator by Dorothy Sayers; Laura wrote a letter demanding an apology for infringement of copyright. Sent it to Harry to deliver personally. Very nice letters from Alan, David Reeves; and Honor about Maisie. Boil has started up again the last few days - no sun, I suppose. Spanish news bad. Munguia burned, apparently by German flyers.

Saturday, May 22nd. [1937]

First fine day for a week. Went to dentist to have a nerve taken out: too lively after two killings. Maisie business settling itself: letter from her. Ghost 5; but must wait for Laura to see if I have taken the story a bit too far. Laura on Poems & writing letters. Juan of Moli still in prison: no news from Fabrica. * First serious talk of general withdrawal of volunteers, to which all countries concerned will pledge themselves. Basques still on their second line of defence, and have had new chaser planes sent them.

Sunday, May 23rd. [1937]

Hot day. Could not settle down to work, somehow, until evening when I wrote six drafts of Leaving the Rest Unsaid as a final poem for the book. Wrote letter to Rennes. Spent several hours with Schw & Str. who feel absence from Deyà more & more.

Monday, May 24th [1937]

Worked on Poems, after going with Karl to the German consulate about his passport. Wrote a long letter to Watt in answer to a stupid letter from Doubleday about proofreading of my Lawrence book. Reassuring letter from Short about houses, animals & Gelat: & a letter from Juan which we sent at once to Rennes. Still hopes of early release. Government offensive at Guadalajara again. Laura doing Poems & letters.

Tuesday, May 25th. [1937]

Work of Poems. Laura's eyes not good: she took some hours off - we went for a walk towards Pazallos. Jenny wrote: she is in a sure-fire successful show. Have lost a lot of unnecessary weight. Reading Experiences of a New Guinea R.M.

Wednesday, May 26th. [1937]

Our letter has not appeared in the D.T. yet. Going over Poems finally: for punctuation mostly. Laura went over the first part of Chap 5 & we settled on the course of the rest, which I started. In Lugano bought 2 white linen suits for £4.4 the pair. Thundery weather. Government bombardment of Palma today & two days ago. Italian warship hit, 6 officers killed. German warship nearly hit.

Thursday, May 27th. [1937]

Thundery day. Finished Chapter V draft. Finished going over Poems. Laura & I went to a film of Coronation & a horror film with L.Barrymore & Maureen O'Sullivan: degenerate beyond words: Devil Child.

Friday, May 28th. [1937]

Ghost. Started Ch.6. L's & my letter unexpectedly appeared in D.T. with only one sentence (reference to Lord Nuffield) cut out. Laura nearly finished her Poems: she wrote one today in only 1 1/2 hours about 'unPentateuchal Genesis'. Walk nearly every day over the Gentillino hill & down by the nutwood & grotto: this time brought back a long stemmed (rather rough) star-of-bethlehem. Scabious. Oppressive lushness after Spain. A walk to Lugano, late, with Laura.

Saturday, May 29th. [1937]

Ghost: more of Ch VI as far as I can go till Laura reads the draft. Reading over her poems. Very hot weather. Reading Hart Crane life by P. Horton. League of Nations resolution about Spain & withdrawal of volunteers. Deutchland bombed at Ibiza.

Sunday, May 30th. [1937]

Rearranged order of Poems. Worked on an account of my early poems. Tore it up. Laura going over Chapter V of Ghost. Letter to Harrison Smith re: Lawrence book. Basques still fighting hard, not yet back on their last line. Sinking of the Cuidad de Barcelona by submarine. Bombardment of Almeria by Germans & withdrawal of Germany & Italy from Non-Intervention pact. Fireflies and an Emperor Hawk moth (?)

Monday, May 31st. [1937]

Again writing an account of my early poems. Checking Carl's cross-copying of Laura's Poems. Letters from various people in answer to our D.T.letter. Very hot. Bought a real Panama, window soiled, for 10 fr. Laura bought 2 hats.