Due to unresolved technical problems I am unable to read the further postings on this thread since it was revived, so aplogies if I do not respond to any comments where it might be thought I should.

Back From Australia


Cocooned in Time, at this inhuman height,
The packaged food tastes neutrally of clay,
We never seem to catch the running day
But travel on in everlasting night
With all the chic accoutrements of flight:
Lotions and essences in neat array
And yet another plastic cup and tray.
"Thank you so much. Oh no, I'm quite all right".

At home in Cornwall hurrying autumn skies
Leave Bray Hill barren, Stepper jutting bare,
And hold the moon above the sea-wet sand.
The very last of late September dies
In frosty silence and the hills declare
How vast the sky is, looked at from the land.

John Betjeman

[This message has been edited by Janet Kenny (edited July 05, 2005).]

I have a favorite JB poem which I could not find on a quick Google searh. Perhaps someone will recognize it.
It contains the verse:

The Old Great Western Railway shakes.
The Old Great Western Railway spins.
The Old Great Western Railway makes
Me very sorry for my sins.

Dear Gail

It’s entitled “Distant View of a Provincial Town” and begins

Beside those spires so spick and span
Against an unencumbered sky
The Old Great Western Railway ran
When someone different was I.

The verse you quote is the last. Sorry! I don’t have time just now to put up the rest.

Kind regards…

Clive Watkins

<u>Distant View of a Provincial Town</u>


Beside those spires so spick and span
Against an unencumbered sky
The old Great Western Railway ran
When someone different was I.

St. Aidan's with the prickly nobs
And iron spikes and coloured tiles ---
Where Auntie Maud devoutly bobs
In those enriched vermilion aisles:

St. George's where the mattins bell
But rarely drowned the trams for prayer ---
No Popish sight or sound or smell
Disturbed that gas-invaded air:

St. Mary's where the Rector preached
In such a jolly friendly way
On cricket, football, things that reached
The simple life of every day:

And that United Benefice
With entrance permanently locked, ---
How Gothic, grey and sad it is
Since Mr. Grogley was unfrocked!

The old Great Western Railway shakes
The old Great Western Railway spins ---
The old Great Western Railway makes
Me very sorry for my sins.

Perhaps the word "twee" comes to mind in reading John Betjeman's verses. A minor poet certainly, his poems are entertaining but cute at the same time. His work continues to be charming because of the English subject matter and nicely captures something of life in his native land at a certain stage in his existence. But it adamantly refuses to rise to any great heights as poetry.

Chris

Clive said:
Sorry to digress from JB, but that's a huge understatement, Clive! Pam Ayres is STILL enormously popular. I met her at a literary lunch last year and she's delightful; part of her appeal is her 'ordinariness' and lack of celeb behaviour. She even rears chickens in her back garden. Here's a testimony of how busy she still is:

PAM AYRES has just completed her UK Spring tour of 45 shows which played to an average 91% capacity, confirming her place as one of the biggest selling comediennes in the UK. Pam is now starting to write her autobiography which will be published in Autumn next year, when she will undertake an extensive book promotion tour including concerts in the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.

This year PAM AYRES celebrates 35 years as a professional entertainer. It was November 1975 when Pam made the first of her appearances on the ITV talent show, Opportunity Knocks, the “Britain’s Got Talent” TV show of its day, and this proved to be the start of an incredible career for a unique entertainer.
On TV Pam has recently been seen on The One Show, Paul O’Grady, and QI, and next year she will be recording a new DVD of her latest live show. Also next year Pam will be recording her fourth series for Radio 4 of AYRES ON THE AIR. Pam is is a regular guest on other Radio 4 programmes such as Just A Minute, Loose Ends, and Saturday Live.

Hello Jayne

I must admit I don't know much about Pam Ayres. Though I think she can probably be compared in style and popularity to Wendy Cope, isn't that right? Maybe they both should be taken about as seriously.

Chris

--Not remotely, Chris.
Best regards,
David

It's nice to see a Betjeman thread at the top of the heap. He has always been one of my favorite poets although it's hard to pin down exactly what makes him so special. It's more than the "twee" factor, though rarely are poets so unabashedly nostalgic and camp (lines like "Oh, chintzy, chintzy cheeriness" and "That burning buttercuppy day" spring to mind). If he is a minor poet, so be it; he had an arresting voice and there wasn't and still isn't someone remotely like him. To an American boy born in the late eighties, Betjeman represented everything I considered to be British: the 50s-style propriety, the quirky place names, the soft sadness settling everywhere like dust in a polished living room. There probably never really was a Britain like that, and it certainly wasn't like that when I lived in London for a brief time, but he captures a sense of place so well and his poem emit sadness and warmth at the same time. Plus, his love poetry is punchy and smart. Myfanwy and Joan and Wendy, oh my.

On a different note, I once recited "A Subaltern's Love Song" to my roommate who cares nothing for poetry. He responded, "See, that's a good poem. You can tell the poet could actually write." Exactly.