Author: John Betjeman

The gas was on in the Institute, The flare was up in the gym, A man was running a mineral […]

The heavy mahogany door with its wrought-iron screen Shuts. And the sound is rich, sympathetic, discreet. The sun still shines […]

The sleepy sound of a tea-time tide Slaps at the rocks the sun has dried, Too lazy, almost, to sink […]

She died in the upstairs bedroom By the light of the ev’ning star That shone through the plate glass window […]

Across the wet November night The church is bright with candlelight And waiting Evensong. A single bell with plaintive strokes […]

Here among long-discarded cassocks, Damp stools, and half-split open hassocks, Here where the vicar never looks I nibble through old […]

Up the ash tree climbs the ivy, Up the ivy climbs the sun, With a twenty-thousand pattering, Has a valley […]

This is the time of day when we in the Mens’s ward Think “one more surge of the pain and […]

How straight it flew, how long it flew, It clear’d the rutty track And soaring, disappeared from view Beyond the […]

When melancholy Autumn comes to Wembley And electric trains are lighted after tea The poplars near the stadium are trembly […]

Kind o’er the kinderbank leans my Myfanwy, White o’er the playpen the sheen of her dress, Fresh from the bathroom […]

The first-class brains of a senior civil servant Shiver and shatter and fall As the steering column of his comfortable […]

The sort of girl I like to see Smiles down from her great height at me. She stands in strong, […]

Golden haired and golden hearted I would ever have you be, As you were when last we parted Smiling slow […]

At the end of a long-walled garden in a red provincial town, A brick path led to a mulberry – […]

Oh would I could subdue the flesh Which sadly troubles me! And then perhaps could view the flesh As though […]

In the licorice fields at Pontefract My love and I did meet And many a burdened licorice bush Was blooming […]

Phone for the fish knives, Norman As cook is a little unnerved; You kiddies have crumpled the serviettes And I […]

Gaily into Ruislip Gardens Runs the red electric train, With a thousand Ta’s and Pardon’s Daintily alights Elaine; Hurries down […]

The bells of waiting Advent ring, The Tortoise stove is lit again And lamp-oil light across the night Has caught […]