Bread and Circuses

Chapter 81: I BOURNEMOUTH

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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.

BOURNEMOUTH TO POOLE

I BOURNEMOUTH

Quite given o’er to shameful destinies Yet may I muse what graces once were thine Whose little brooks descend the tawny chine So silver-silent on their gold degrees; Whose smiles, like hers of Cyprus, from the seas Have drawn the tremulous mirth wherewith they shine Under the coif of heaven that doth confine Thy tender headlands and their tress of trees. Poor beauty, with thy dowry of bright sand, Poured out in softness, to chance comers shown, So fallen;—doth it much import what hand Cast the rude lot that shred thy purple gown, Or, on this lovely and reluctant land, Who stamped this monstrous image of a town?