Bread and Circuses

Chapter 57: RONDEAU OF SARUM CLOSE

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About This Book

A lyrical collection of short poems ranges from quiet country scenes and childhood memories to urban sketches and religious reflections. The poet renders streams, gardens, market sellers, and domestic interiors in close sensory detail while pairing everyday observation with moral and spiritual meditation. Animal vignettes and playful pieces for children sit alongside elegies, prayers, and ironic portraits of modern life, producing tones of humour, tenderness, and solemnity. Varied forms and concise portraits move between pastoral lanes, London streets, and intimate household moments while attending to time, sorrow, and faith.

RONDEAU OF SARUM CLOSE

In Sarum Close, when she had said her say, He stood bare-headed where dim vapours lay Heavy on vacant lawn, athwart the stone Of that great pile that stands unsought, alone,— Himself as still and derelict as they. Here, when morn’s gleaming hand had rolled away From the green plot of this their week-old play Her misty curtain, each to each was shown, In Sarum Close.

Void the discoloured fane before him lay, Void the dark-sodded precincts,—far away One closed a window, night’s appeal had grown Perchance too urgent, even as his own Had seemed to her whose friendship did with day In Sarum close.