The global warming/climate change advisory unit attached too the Hutton Think Tank having seen the Betjeman Plaque with an example of his verse-see image have suggested that 'carbon' be substituted for 'exultant' and that readers be reminded of the importance of conserving fish stocks in the huge consoling sea There are limits to nature's bounty. Also we are reminded that the BBC Weather Centre cannot be held responsible for any references to possible gale damage referred to in Sir John's poetry. Meteorology although more technically advanced than in his day (Seaweed and Red Sky in the Morning) is not yet 100 reliable for insurance or other legal purposes.

Labels: BBC Blether Centre, Betjeman, Hutton Think Tank

  ¶ 1:30 PM (0) comments

 



BETJEMAN AT ST PANCRAS

Scruffily and handbagged I stand
Business ladies hurrying past
To the glorious Eurostar,
Foreign climes in Tourist class
Whilst mere Londoners, in funeral drab
Can only dream of rich repast
Speeding to the Eiffel Tour
At One sixty something miles an hour

almost wrote Sir J B-and surely would have done had he lived to see the glories of St Pancras International Terminal
.
The image of the poet is larger than life size if not as large as the massive Lovers Meeting (as in Journey's end in..)-or The Giant Snoggers to give it the correct title-surely proof that London rather than Paris is the city for romantic liaisons or in this case La Grande Passion-grande being le mot juste

What would Sir John have made of these two figures. We will never know but

Lord shrive me from unseemly lust
For gigantic women about to rust
might cover it

Labels: Betjeman, St Pancras Snoggers

  ¶ 3:30 PM (1) comments