Devonshire Street W1
The heavy mahogany door with its wrought-iron screen Shuts.
And the sound is rich, sympathetic, discreet.
The sun still shines on this eighteenth-century scene With Edwardian faience adornment — Devonshire Street.
No hope.
And the X-ray photographs under his arm Confirm the message.
His wife stands timidly by.
The opposite brick-built house looks lofty and calm Its chimneys steady against the mackerel sky.
No hope.
And the iron knob of this palisade So cold to the touch, is luckier now than he "Oh merciless, hurrying Londoners!
Why was I made For the long and painful deathbed coming to me?" She puts her fingers in his, as, loving and silly At long-past Kensington dances she used to do "It's cheaper to take the tube to Piccadilly And then we can catch a nineteen or twenty-two".
Sir John Betjeman
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Let me take this other glove As the vox humana swells, And the beauteous fields of Bask beneath the Abbey bells
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