Binsey Poplars papers could fetch £40,000 (From The Oxford Times)

Binsey Poplars papers could fetch £40,000

9:40am Thursday 21st February 2013 in News

EARLY drafts of a famous Gerard Manley Hopkins poem are to be auctioned at Bonhams in London in April.

The previously unpublished working papers for the poem Binsey Poplars have an estimated sale price of £40,000 to £45,000.

They will go up for auction on Wednesday, April 10.

The papers are among 500 lots being sold by Roy Davids, a 70-year-old retired manuscript dealer from Great Haseley, near Thame, who is selling his entire collection for an estimated £1.5m.

Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote the poem in March, 1879, after noticing on a walk to Godstow that the trees lining the river had been felled.

The poet’s early drafts show extensive deletions and rewritings and complement material on the work held at the Bodleian Library.

Mr Davids said: “For me, Hopkins is one of only a few hands that is truly artistic and his poems come closest to the condition of music.”

A second stage of the sale will take place at Bonhams on Wednesday, May 8.