Bread and Circuses

Chapter 84: THE PRIVET HEDGE

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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.

THE PRIVET HEDGE

The common pavement dull and grey Is strewn with leafy wands to-day, And sceptres green to the curb’s edge— For they have cut the privet hedge.

My Baby gathers, bending down, The branches swept by Mother’s gown And carries home into the house Those magical and royal boughs.

But O the milky blossoms sweet That scented all the sunny street— Crushed by the Baby’s sandalled tread They lie behind her, brown and dead.