National poetry day

 This is a day for the enjoyment, discovery and sharing of poetry as the organisers' web site puts it. For me, it is a time for recalling favourites, not all of which are by the great names. As we are approaching winter, autumnal themes come to mind. J.D.C, Pellow's "After London" in these days when great cities are having to adjust to life after pandemics is particularly apt. 

One of the few poems I can still recite by heart is by Walter Savage Landor, known in these parts for his favourable comparison of Swansea Bay with the Bay of Naples. It is good to learn from the wikipedia entry that he was a Whig and an influence on Charles Dickens and Robert Browning, two more of my heroes.

Dying Speech of an Old Philosopher

I strove with none, for none was worth my strife:
Nature I loved, and, next to Nature, Art:
I warm’d both hands before the fire of Life;
It sinks; and I am ready to depart.