ROBERT GRAVES. Autograph letter, initialled RG, to Ian Mackenzie, 21st May 1918. With First Draft of Robert Graves Poem “The Kiss”. “I don’t know what it means but it sounds fine.” Robert Graves addresses this deeply personal letter to Ian Mackenzie, 2nd Lieutenant in the Highland Light Infantry. There is an easy familiarity in the letter’s tone, attesting to a close bond between the two soldiers. Mackenzie was a young poet who, after a period at Sandhurst, had been given a commission in 1917. Due to persistent ill health Mackenzie never went to France and after a prolonged stay in various hospitals, died of pneumonia on Armistice Day - 11 November 1918. Graves himself was no stranger to illness and had almost died of pneumonia as a child. Whilst serving at the Front he was so seriously wounded that his family was sent a telegram stating that “he had died of his wounds” followed by an announcement of his death in the Times. He returned to France in 1917 but it was quickly apparent that he was in no state to continue as a soldier. He was sent home almost immediately and was put in command of the officer cadet battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers at Kinmel Camp in North Wales. Bryn y Pin was where he was staying at the time of the letter with his new wife Nancy Nicholson, to whom he refers somewhat unenthusiastically, “I have to be nice to Nancy in the evening.” Nancy Nicholson, who was herself an artist, was the daughter of Sir William Nicholson and sister of Ben Nicholson.