NYC Tom (isn't it?). You were right to pick me up on my hasty crit which might seem to imply an overall condemnation of camp art. First, I'd better emphasise that I intended the word to convey 'theatrical, affected, exaggerated'. Any reference to gay culture would IMO have been inappropriate when discussing JB's sexual orientation. 'Infantile' is the first word that springs to mind, but I don't really want to chase that hare.
To avoid misunderstanding I should probably have used the word 'whimsy.' Whimsy can to my mind be engaging if well controlled or tedious(if stale and self-indulgent). It seems to me that the Myfanwy poems and others in which JB writes self-deprecatingly and nostalgically of unrequited love would have benefited from pruning. Jokes of this sort were common from Victorian times.
IN THE PUBLIC GARDENS is, I suggest, a superior example of JB's whimsicality.

In the Public Gardens,
To the airs of Strauss,
Eingang we're in love again
When ausgang we were aus.

The waltz was played, the songs were sung,
The night resolved our fears;
From bunchy boughs the lime trees hung
Their gold electroliers.

Among the loud Americans
Zwei Englanderwere we,
You so white and frail and pale
And me so deeply me;

I bought for you a dark-red rose,
I saw your grey-green eyes,
As high above the floodlights,
The true moon sailed the skies.

In the Public Gardens,
Ended things begin;
Ausgangwe were out of love
Und eingang we are in.

OK, OK. The 'white' ... 'pale' combo in st 3 is bad. I suspect the 'white' may refer to a dress.

Of Betjeman's religious poems, I most admire ST SAVIOUR'S, ABERDEEN PARK ...
Too long to quote in full here, alas. The use of period detail seems well judged to set the scene and create an impression of lost lifestyles - I particularly like
'Solid Italianate houses for the solid commercial mind.' And the inclusiveness of JB's brand of Christianity is moving - even to this secular humanist. Margaret.

[This message has been edited by Campoem (edited March 11, 2003).]