Norfolk
How did the Devil come?
When first attack?
These Norfolk lanes recall lost innocence,
The years fall off and find me walking
Dragging a stick along the wooden
Down this same path, where, forty years ago,
My father strolled behind me, calm and slow.
I used to fill my hands with sorrel
And shower him with them from the tops of stiles,
I used to butt my head into his
To make him hurry down those languorous
Of ash and alder-shaded lanes, till
Our moorings and the masthead would appear.
There after supper lit by lantern
Warm in the cabin I could lie
And hear against the polished sides at
The lap lap lapping of the weedy Bure,
A whispering and watery Norfolk
Telling of all the moonlit reeds around.
How did the Devil come?
When first attack?
The church is just the same, though now I
Fowler of Louth restored it.
Time, bring
The rapturous ignorance of long ago,
The peace, before the dreadful daylight starts,
Of unkept promises and broken hearts.
Sir John Betjeman
Other author posts
The Licorice Fields At Pontefract
In the licorice fields at My love and I did And many a burdened licorice Was blooming round our feet;
Dilton Marsh Halt
Was it worth keeping the Halt open, We thought as we looked at the Red through the spread of the cedar-tree, With the evening train gone by
Middlesex
Gaily into Ruislip Runs the red electric train, With a thousand Ta's and Daintily alights Elaine;
Five OClock Shadow
This is the time of day when we in the Men's Think one more surge of the pain and I give up the fight When he who struggles for breath can struggle less strongly: This is the time of day which is worse than night
