[BITList] Fwd: Sir John Betjeman : The Licorice Fields at Pontefract OR Poetry in Motion / Music

[John Feltham]

How about John Betjeman?

ooroo

 
Sir John Betjeman : The Licorice Fields at Pontefract OR Poetry in Motion / Music

Betjeman was a "poet" of an entirely different cut of the cloth, as compared to Eliot. His prose (which I altogether prefer) was like poetry and his verse often like prose! But Poet Laureate he was and a celebrated writer on the English countryside and on architecture (have many of his books which include his doodles and his funny private letters and notes).

Was delighted to find his recitation of "The Licorice Fields of Pontefract", beautifully set to music that complements his reading. Here it is, lemme send you there :
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmtF8LH2J34 
 
[there are lots of other gems on the main page of that channel. scan it fully.]


And below, for full effect, is the poem, a celebration of an amourous interlude in the Welsh (English) countryside. You will find many of his recitals on You Tube, simply hit Betjeman in the search box.

The Licorice Fields At Pontefract

In the licorice fields at Pontefract
My love and I did meet
And many a burdened licorice bush
Was blooming round our feet;
Red hair she had and golden skin,
Her sulky lips were shaped for sin,
Her sturdy legs were flannel-slack'd
The strongest legs in Pontefract.

The light and dangling licorice flowers
Gave off the sweetest smells;
>From various black Victorian towers
The Sunday evening bells
Came pealing over dales and hills
And tanneries and silent mills
And lowly streets where country stops
And little shuttered corner shops.

She cast her blazing eyes on me
And plucked a licorice leaf;
I was her captive slave and she
My red-haired robber chief.
Oh love! for love I could not speak,
It left me winded, wilting, weak,
And held in brown arms strong and bare
And wound with flaming ropes of hair.







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