Carcanet has recently published an expanded edition of the remarkable work of the 20th-century poet, Sylvia Townsend Warner (New Collected Poems, £18.95). In this evocation of the handing on of a beloved place, the concern for due regard for heritage can perhaps be read as both public and private.
The Old SquireSquire England has grown old:
Too stiff to ride to hounds,
Too blind to shoot his coverts,
He takes up his great stick
And potters about the grounds.
The meadows and the pond,
The fig-tree on the south wall,
The plantation of young spruces,
The yew hedge twelve foot thick -
He stares at them all;
And grumbling as he goes,
He stops here and there
To spud up a dandelion.
His mind is full of doubt,
For a stranger is his heir.
House, meadows, walks and trees,
Although his sight be dim
He sees them very plainly;
He prays that none may flout
The things so dear to him.
You can borrow New Collected Poems from the Scottish Poetry Library, which also lends by post. Tel: 0131-557 2876, e-mail
reception@spl.org.uk See
www.spl.org.uk
The full article contains 202 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
