by Roald Dahl (1916-1990) The most important thing we’ve learned, So far as children are concerned, Is never, NEVER, NEVER let Them near your television set- Or better still, just don’t install The idiotic thing at all. In almost every house we’ve been, We’ve watched them gaping at the screen. They loll and slop andContinue reading “Television”
Category Archives: poetry
Promises Like Piecrust
Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) Promise me no promises, So will I not promise you: Keep we both our liberties, Never false, and never true: Let us hold the die uncast, Free to come as free to go: For I cannot know your past, And of mine what can you know? You so warm, may once haveContinue reading “Promises Like Piecrust”
Gwalia Deserta XV
The poem on which the folk song The Bells of Rhymney was based by Idris Davies (1905-1953) O what can you give me? Say the sad bells of Rhymney. Is there hope for the future? Cry the brown bells of Merthyr. Who made the mineowner? Say the black bells of Rhondda. And who robbed theContinue reading “Gwalia Deserta XV”
Ave Maria Plena Gratia
by Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Was this His coming! I had hoped to see A scene of wondrous glory, as was told Of some great God who in a rain of gold Broke open bars and fell on Danae: Or a dread vision as when Semele Sickening for love and unappeased desire Prayed to see God’sContinue reading “Ave Maria Plena Gratia”
London 1802
William Wordsworth (1770-1850) Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour; England hath need of thee: she is a fen Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen, Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower, Have forfeited their ancient English dower Of inward happiness. We are selfish men; Oh! raise us up, return to usContinue reading “London 1802”
To the New Year
by Dr Tulsi Hamumanthu If Life be a Sea and you are a Wave, O kind New Year, will you not save Us from sinking, by letting us ride Atop your apex, taming the tide? If Life be a Book and a Page you are, O neat New Year, let us not mar With blotsContinue reading “To the New Year”
Bright Star
by John Keats (1795-1821) Bright star, were I as stedfast as though art – Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night And watching, with eternal lids apart Like nature’s patient, sleepless Emerite, The moving waters at their priestlike task Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores, Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask OfContinue reading “Bright Star”
The Sound Collector
by Roger McGough (b 1937) A stranger called this morning Dressed all in black and grey Put every sound into a bag And carried them away The whistling of the kettle The turning of the lock The purring of the kitten The ticking of the clock The popping of the toaster The crunching of theContinue reading “The Sound Collector”
A Mind’s Journey to Diss
by John Betjamin (1906-1984) Dear Mary, Yes, it will be bliss To go with you by train to Diss, Your walking shoes upon your feet, We’ll meet, my sweet, at Liverpool Street. That levellers we may be reckoned Perhaps we’d better travel second; Or, lest reporters on us burst, Perhaps we’d better travel first. AboveContinue reading “A Mind’s Journey to Diss”
A Shropshire Lad
by John Betjeman (1906-1984) The gas was on in the institute, The flare was up in the gym, A man was running a mineral line, A lass was singing a hymn, When Captain Webb the Dawley man, Captain Webb from Dawley, Came swimming along the old canal That carried the bricks to Lawley. Swimming alongContinue reading “A Shropshire Lad”
Robin's Nest 