Oswald Jennings Couldrey (1882-1958) was a British artist, poet and author.

The son of Frederick Knight Couldrey of Abingdon

Abingdon, Oxfordshire

Abingdon or archaically Abingdon-on-Thames is a market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. It is the seat of the Vale of White Horse district. Previously the county town of Berkshire, Abingdon is one of several places that claim to be Britain's oldest continuously occupied town, with...

, Oswald Couldrey attended Abingdon School

Abingdon School

Abingdon School is a British day and boarding independent school for boys situated in Abingdon, Oxfordshire , previously known as Roysse's School. In 1998 a formal merger took place between Abingdon School and Josca's, a preparatory school four miles to the west at Frilford...

 and Pembroke College, Oxford

Pembroke College, Oxford

Pembroke College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located in Pembroke Square. As of 2009, Pembroke had an estimated financial endowment of £44.9 million.-History:...

. He entered the Indian Civil Service, education branch, and became Principal of Government Arts College, Rajahmundry

Rajahmundry

Rajahmundry is a city and municipal corporation of the Andhra Pradesh state in India. It is located east of the state capital, Hyderabad, on the banks of the River Godavari. Known as the Cultural Capital, Rajahmundry is noted for its intense Veda culture and intellect...

.

He established the Andhra School of Indian Arts and guided several Telugu

Telugu people

The Telugu people or Telugu Prajalu are an ethnic group of India. They are the native speakers of the Telugu language, the most commonly spoken language in India after Hindi and Bengali...

 artists such as Damerla Rama Rao

Damerla Rama Rao

Damerla Rama Rao was an Indian artist. born on March 8, 1897 in Rajahmundry. He was born to Physician Damerla Venkata Rama Rao and Lakshmi Devi as a second child in the group of five girls and four boys. Rao was married to Satya Vani in 1919...

 and Adivi Bapiraju

Adivi Bapiraju

Bapiraju Adivi was born to Krishnayya and Subbamma, a Niyogi Brahmin family, on October 8, 1895 in Bhimavaram. He graduated from a high school in Bhimavaram. Later after graduating from law school, he practiced law for a while in Bhimavaram...

.

In watercolour he painted many evocative Indian and Abingdon scenes. He was author of

• The Mistaken Fury (1914)
• Thames and Godaveri (1920)
• South Indian Hours (1924)
• Triolets and Epigrams (1948?)
• The Phantom Waterfall (1949)
• Sonnets of East and West (1951)
• Verses over Fifty Years (1958).

Wagtails on the River is one of his triolet

Triolet

A triolet is a three stanza poem of eight lines. Its rhyme scheme is ABaAabAB and often all lines are in iambic tetrameter: the first, fourth and seventh lines are identical, as are the second and final lines, thereby making the initial and final couplets identical as well.-Examples:The form...

s.

Out of the reeds a wagtail flew,

And then another three or four;

And every time that I said "Shoo",

Out of the reeds a wagtail flew.

When I had counted twenty-two

I said, "There can't be any more."

Out of the reeds a wagtail flew;

And then another three or four,